88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 9 and 5 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 The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
Kyriakos Giaxis 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.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Jordi Sanchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyriakos Giaxis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
6 goals in one match, Franco Shea on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nestos Chrysoupoli and Volos NPS.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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. 110 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kyriakos Giaxis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Volos NPS.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has 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.
0‑4 against Anagennisi Karditsa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Marked 7.21 on 18 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
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 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Nestos Chrysoupoli were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Marked 7.17 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nestos Chrysoupoli had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nestos Chrysoupoli dressing room was either.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It had gone 12 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A brace, and Franco Shea takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franco Shea provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Álvaro Jiménez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nestos Chrysoupoli and Asteras Tripolis B in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Panetolikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsGiorgos Doumtsis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hossam El Sanea has, at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Marius Krokdal has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Nestos Chrysoupoli have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Spyros Chatzikyriakos has just signed for Nestos Chrysoupoli, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Nestos Chrysoupoli until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Panserraikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
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.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
1‑4 to Panserraikos, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nestos Chrysoupoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nestos Chrysoupoli have done the hard part with Aris Thessaloniki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Panetolikos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Panetolikos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Bokos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A 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 Thanasis Kostanasios has written the date down.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nestos Chrysoupoli have done the hard part with Panetolikos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Petrolul Ploiești 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Jordi Sanchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Atromitos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Atromitos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panetolikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Álvaro Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volos NPS have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
In brief
The dugoutKostas Vryzas asks for a word with the manager
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everything agreed with Panetolikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jan Vodháněl 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. Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Volos NPS. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nestos Chrysoupoli have done the hard part with PAS Giannina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nestos Chrysoupoli interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Giannis Bokos 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Aris Thessaloniki. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli 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. Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to PAOK. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Aris Thessaloniki 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.
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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Atromitos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jordi Sanchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atromitos have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Ilioupoli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Bokos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deal with PAS Giannina 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Atromitos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Panagiotis Ballas 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Marko Kerkez is in the works
The dugoutJan Vodháněl is playing like a man with something to prove
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
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.
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Bokos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordi Sanchez 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Petros Papadopoulos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Jordi Sanchez 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Bokos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Jordi Sanchez was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Nestos Chrysoupoli this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
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 Nestos Chrysoupoli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
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.
Álvaro Jiménez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jordi Sanchez 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Sanchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nestos Chrysoupoli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Giannis Bokos 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 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 Marko Živanović has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nestos Chrysoupoli interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Petros Papadopoulos keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christos Kountouriotis and Nestos Chrysoupoli agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Sanchez 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nestos Chrysoupoli has been clear about where Sévérin Ze Essono stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Panagiotis Ballas is 34, with 171 appearances behind him, and Nestos Chrysoupoli will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
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.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nestos Chrysoupoli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giannis Bokos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Álvaro Jiménez 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.
12 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordi Sanchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 10 and 11 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 am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Petros Papadopoulos recited it perfectly.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jan Vodháněl and Nestos Chrysoupoli agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gerald Okoye has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Nestos Chrysoupoli have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Jordi Sanchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordi Sanchez 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panserraikos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Álvaro Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
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. Jordi Sanchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Donaldoni Zambou's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atromitos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Jan Vodháněl 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. Jordi Sanchez 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Atromitos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panserraikos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Jiménez 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 11 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Nestos Chrysoupoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Panserraikos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Position 9 and 11 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nestos Chrysoupoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Filippos Dimitriadis 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. Jordi Sanchez 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 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.
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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
Franco Shea had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Kavala were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Giorgos Doumtsis 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
1‑3 to Anagennisi Karditsa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Jordi Sanchez 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. PAS Giannina had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nestos Chrysoupoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Karel Mustmaa 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
Álvaro Jiménez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordi Sanchez 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jordi Sanchez 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. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
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. Nestos Chrysoupoli know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout22 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 0‑2 Stavros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jan Vodháněl 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. Álvaro Jiménez 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli know it.
Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
PAOK B next, and one man in the Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Jordi Sanchez 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.
8 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
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 0‑2 Stavros Karelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nestos Chrysoupoli told Karel Mustmaa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Makedonikos were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Jiménez 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑5 to Kampaniakos, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippos Dimitriadis 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli know which stage they are at.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 8 and 5 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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
Jan Vodháněl 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. Jordi Sanchez 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Stavros Karelis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Filippos Dimitriadis 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.
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 Álvaro Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kavala in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has to find a result from somewhere.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Juliá and Nestos Chrysoupoli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
1‑2 to PAS Giannina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Stavros Karelis to a room that had heard them before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giorgos Doumtsis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nestos Chrysoupoli needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Vangelis Kontogiannis is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jan Vodháněl 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Angelos Syritoudis has, at Nestos Chrysoupoli, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nestos Chrysoupoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Zisis Tsikos, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zisis Tsikos 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Filippos Dimitriadis. 2‑0 against Asteras Tripolis B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Bokos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAS Giannina have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Nestos Chrysoupoli were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nestos Chrysoupoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Atromitos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Jan Vodháněl 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli offered $43.0K; AEK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atromitos have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nestos Chrysoupoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nestos Chrysoupoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kyriakos Giaxis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nestos Chrysoupoli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
Nestos Chrysoupoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Panathinaikos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nestos Chrysoupoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nestos Chrysoupoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Everything agreed with Panetolikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Kyriakos Giaxis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kostas Vryzas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Leonard Muca has come up in conversations Nestos Chrysoupoli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Lefteris Astras is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The clubs have shaken hands with AEK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with AEL Larisa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Panathinaikos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyriakos Giaxis 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to AEL Larisa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mubaraq Adeshina may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lefteris Gionis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AEK is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The 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 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.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Panargiakos for Leonard Muca 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyriakos Giaxis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Panserraikos 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.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to AEK this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyriakos Giaxis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Leonard Muca again, and this time the name on the line is Panargiakos. Nestos Chrysoupoli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Aris Thessaloniki. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
Nestos Chrysoupoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Panathinaikos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Atromitos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Filippos Dimitriadis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Iraklis. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Panathinaikos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Panagiotis Ballas 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 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyriakos Giaxis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Lefteris Astras was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Jan Vodháněl 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. Pavlos Dermitzakis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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. Nestos Chrysoupoli will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippos Dimitriadis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippos Dimitriadis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippos Dimitriadis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mubaraq Adeshina may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The dugoutKostas Vryzas knocks on the manager’s door
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
Panagiotis Ballas 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 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 had been thinking. Pavlos Dermitzakis 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.
In brief
The dugoutZisis Tsikos knocks on the manager’s door
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It 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.
In brief
The dugoutZisis Tsikos asks for a word with the manager
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Jan Vodháněl was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyriakos Giaxis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Lefteris Astras is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Panagiotis Ballas is 33, with 164 appearances behind him, and Nestos Chrysoupoli will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippos Dimitriadis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Giorgos Manolakis is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christos Lelekas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nestos Chrysoupoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Juliá and Nestos Chrysoupoli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Pavlos Dermitzakis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutSpyros Glynos asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nestos Chrysoupoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyriakos Giaxis 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Jan Vodháněl and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavlos Dermitzakis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Nestos Chrysoupoli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atromitos have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippos Dimitriadis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Lefteris Astras is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Kostas Tsamouris may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Nestos Chrysoupoli until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panetolikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Filippos Dimitriadis 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panserraikos have kept their man, and Nestos Chrysoupoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Levadiakos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Filippos Dimitriadis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Juliá was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to AEL Larisa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nestos Chrysoupoli have made the call to Panetolikos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Olympiacos 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Nestos Chrysoupoli is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Jorge Juliá 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.
Nestos Chrysoupoli asked and Aris Thessaloniki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jan Vodháněl 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli 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 Nestos Chrysoupoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Nestos Chrysoupoli is running low.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Nestos Chrysoupoli have had the benefit of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nestos Chrysoupoli have done the hard part with AEL Larisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nestos Chrysoupoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Franco Shea on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nestos Chrysoupoli and Kampaniakos.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stavros Karelis, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nestos Chrysoupoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
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.” Stavros Karelis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nestos Chrysoupoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Kyriakos Giaxis 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.58, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Stavros Karelis to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nestos Chrysoupoli told Mubaraq Adeshina something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.