The deal that would have taken Christos Almyras to OFI has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Marko with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Frédéric Miyenga has his answer from Marko; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Marko will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Marko have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Fernández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Marko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
In brief
SquadTropi falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
The phone has started ringing about Christos Almyras again, and this time the name on the line is Asteras. Marko are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everything agreed with Makedonikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Fernández 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.
Marko 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.
“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 Marko know it.
Christos Theodorakis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Marko 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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gertjan Bushaj 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Christos Retsos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Marko can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Christos Theodorakis 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 Jul 2028
9 new faces, and Marko 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Fernández 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.
Marko asked and Egaleo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Thanasis Kostanasios 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 phone has started ringing about Tibério Cunha again, and this time the name on the line is Panserraikos. Marko are listening politely and promising nothing.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Fernández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Christos Theodorakis 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.
8 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.
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 Marko can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panathinaikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko 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.
Christos Theodorakis 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko asked and Levadiakos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Nélson Campali again, and this time the name on the line is Panserraikos. Marko are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Panionios for Christos Almyras 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 deal with Kampaniakos 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.
The name of Tibério Cunha has come up in conversations Marko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Marko can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with PAOK 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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rune Spinnoy has, at Marko, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sławomir Chmiel is living that version at Marko, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidi Lolos 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.
Christos Theodorakis 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 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Marino 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.
Ilias Tselios and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I 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 Marko will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutMathias Abdou knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Luca Marino 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.
Ilias Tselios 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Marko has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Christos Retsos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Klaidi Lolos was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Marko would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino 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; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Klaidi Lolos is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christos Rovas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi 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 Marko know 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Marko will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Position 8 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Luca Marino falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko 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 Marko know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Marko will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Marko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Marko can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Frederik Moberg-Søemod is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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.
Ilias Tselios 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Luca Marino 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.
Ilias Tselios 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Necul trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 8 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Christos Theodorakis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Marko will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marko 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 Nikos Konstantakopoulos is on 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.
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Besson has just signed for Marko, and for once the answer mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Marko can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Klaidi Lolos was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Lucas Besson arrives at Marko with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Luca Marino 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 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 Marko know it.
Luca Marino 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.
Ilias Tselios 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Necul, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Marko 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Marko will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Position 8 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marko ran out of time with Ilioupoli. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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 Marko know it.
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levadiakos is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Marko 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Luca Marino 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Marko will try again when the window opens; Panionios may not be selling by then.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dimitris Bataoulas is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Marko have gone to Levadiakos 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Marko have done the hard part with Ilioupoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Add another name to the list: Makedonikos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tibério Cunha. The answer from Marko has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilias Tselios and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nélson Campali
Panathinaikos arrived with $2.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tasos Donis has gone, the accounts have $2.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Martín Lucero has agreed terms with Panetolikos for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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.
Marko asked and Egaleo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Marko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Marino 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 offer from Gor Mahia for Nélson Campali 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dimitris Bataoulas did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: Panathinaikos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tasos Donis. The answer from Marko has not changed — yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Luca Marino 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Klaidi Lolos. 1‑0 against Chania, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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.
Marko asked and Levadiakos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitris Bataoulas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino 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 Marko know 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilias Tselios 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Marko can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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.
Ilias Tselios 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.
Everybody at Marko saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Marko scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hellas Syros were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Marko know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Spyros Abartzidis 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.
“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.
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 remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Marko may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Luca Marino 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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Marko will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Marko has been clear about where Spyros Fourlanos stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Luca Marino 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout8 Nov 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 Christos Retsos left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Klaidi Lolos is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tropi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Marino 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.
Ilias Tselios 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 Marko know it.
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.
Position 2, 11 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Klaidi Lolos. 1‑0 against Athens Kallithea, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Marko will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Luca Nupieri 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad18 Oct 2027
6 new faces, and Marko are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout18 Oct 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.” Christos Retsos kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nélson Campali 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Spyros Fourlanos'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.
Athens Kallithea next, and one man in the Marko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marko, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Marino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Klaidi Lolos. 2‑0 against Olympiacos B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Bataoulas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Spyros Abartzidis 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.
“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.
Olympiacos B next, and one man in the Marko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tasos Donis signs something — a contract at Marko or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Hellas Syros had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Marko did not stop to explain themselves.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Bataoulas 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.
Spyros Abartzidis 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kampaniakos have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko 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 Dimitris Bataoulas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Marko saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Egaleo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Orestis Tsintonis has, at Marko, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Marko close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Bataoulas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Marko know which stage they are at.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panserraikos is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kifisia have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Emmanouil Tsadjaris has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Tsadjaris 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. Stylianos Papadopoulos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panserraikos have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Bataoulas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luca Nupieri 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.
Marko have made the call to Panathinaikos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad23 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and Marko 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Marko know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Marko have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Edvin Bećirović has gone, the accounts have $1.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
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.
Panathinaikos paid $1.3M and Marko took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitris Bataoulas 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Lazare Amani is in the works
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OFI is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Marko have done the hard part with OFI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 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 Marko know it.
A loan enquiry to AEL Larisa: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Spyros Fourlanos'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.
Add another name to the list: Panathinaikos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edvin Bećirović. The answer from Marko has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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.
Luca Nupieri 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.
Position 3, 27 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.
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.
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 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ilioupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Marko is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympiacos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Kavala 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.
The chase for Spyros Abartzidis ended with $62.0K changing hands and Atromitos out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Panagiotis Avgerinos has come up in conversations Marko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marko and Olympiacos have settled on $170.0K. 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.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: OFI keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cristian Berrio has, at Marko, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kifisia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
$660.0K was the most the club would pay and OFI 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dimitris Bataoulas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Marko will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Camilo Tapasco 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.
$1.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He is going to Asteras, the club has $1.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Kifisia have accepted the money. What Marko do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OFI is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
The offer from AEL Larisa for Panagiotis Avgerinos 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.
Marko have gone to OFI 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with OFI; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panetolikos is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
The name of Alexander Johansson has come up in conversations Marko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Levadiakos 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.
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Iraklis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tropi 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AEK 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 Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AEK is saying, and nobody at Marko is enjoying the guessing.
Marko have gone to Iraklis 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tiago Andino 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marko are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko 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 Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: AEK have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edvin Bećirović. The answer from Marko has not changed — yet.
Everything agreed with Levadiakos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Marko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Marko had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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. Marko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Alexander Johansson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko 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 Marko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Dimitris Chatziisaias 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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Spyros Fourlanos'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.
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 27 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Bainović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexander Johansson 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edvin Bećirović signs something — a contract at Marko or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutTibério Cunha knocks on the manager's door
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Alexander Johansson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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 Marko know it.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Marko 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathias Abdou is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filip Bainović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Marko saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexander Johansson signs something — a contract at Marko or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Marko. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Alexander Johansson 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.
Nobody at Marko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dimitris Chatziisaias trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tropi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dimitris Chatziisaias 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Spyros Fourlanos'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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Marko has been clear about where Babis Pavlidis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Position 3, 27 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Marko know it.
“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 Marko know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexander Johansson 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Marko has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Alexander Johansson 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Marko know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomás Aristizábal has, at Marko, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko asked and Radnicki Nis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Siovas 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. 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigorios Papadopoulos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Marko 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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luca Nupieri is living that version at Marko, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Makedonikos have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Andino 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.
That is the business done at Marko 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.
Kostas Thymianis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marko asked and Koper 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Marko would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
142 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marko 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 Marko, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Makedonikos have kept their man, and Marko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Radnicki Nis have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
149 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marko lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3 on 27 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 offer from OFI for Alexander Johansson 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 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.
Marko asked and Levadiakos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Marko have made the call to Radnicki Nis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 157 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Marko asked and Makedonikos 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 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. Marko will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Marko can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marko asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Alexander Johansson 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Egaleo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kostas Thymianis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christos Retsos after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Marko pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Christos Retsos kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
In brief
The dugoutSpyros Fourlanos is still being punished for one mistake
Filip Bainović 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 had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christos Retsos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Babis Pavlidis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Marko needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dimitris Chatziisaias and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Filip Bainović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lucas Necul is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Christos Theodorakis has come out of that comparison in the side, and Marko have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Bainović 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.
Alexander Johansson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Edvin Bećirović. 1‑0 against Athens Kallithea, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Christos Retsos kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Tasos Donis has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Thymianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every 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 Konstantakopoulos is on it.
Position 5, 12 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Panagiotis Avgerinos has written the date down.
They sit in position 10 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ilioupoli the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Marko will enjoy reviewing.
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 Marko can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Alexander Johansson 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tropi scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Thymianis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Marko told Filip Bainović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kostas Thymianis, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tibério Cunha falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Egaleo? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Hellas Syros next, and one man in the Marko dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Filip Bainović scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Necul, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Marko 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.