The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lanús keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Nestos Chrysoupoli for Giannis Christopoulos 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
Thiago Nuss 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 Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giannis Theodosoulakis 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.17, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at OFI training over how hard people work
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. OFI have done the hard part with River Plate, 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 OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.86, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nestos Chrysoupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Panetolikos have accepted the money. What OFI do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Melbourne Victory have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dimitris Monastirlis. The answer from OFI has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aris Thessaloniki have accepted the money. What OFI do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.9M on the table at Kifisia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Spyridon Tzolis to a room that had heard them before.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. OFI had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Thiago Nuss 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The name of Giannis Christopoulos has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Michorl, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Spyridon Tzolis to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Olympiacos next, and one man in the OFI dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad20 Dec 2027
João Silva 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Theodosoulakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a OFI man
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aitor Cantalapiedra provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Thiago Nuss 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon OFI had all but put away. Volos NPS will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.62, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Manos Faitakis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Silva 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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Achilleas Poungouras will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aitor Cantalapiedra 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at OFI 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 OFI would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Position 2, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krešimir Krizmanić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Thiago Nuss 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thiago Nuss 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 unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nicholas Gioacchini had OFI level again within 3 minutes, and Panetolikos never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Thiago Nuss is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A brace, and Eddie Salcedo takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eddie Salcedo provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aitor Cantalapiedra provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Theodosoulakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Nicholas Gioacchini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 watch every OFI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panionios runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kyllian Gasnier has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at OFI 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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aitor Cantalapiedra provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Silva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the OFI support went home talking about one name.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Spyridon Tzolis, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicholas Gioacchini provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roger Colomina has just signed for OFI, and for once the answer mattered.
Thiago Nuss 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. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panserraikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at OFI 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.
OFI had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Sofia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Thiago Nuss was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gil Vicente keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panargiakos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
$9.7M on the table at Gil Vicente. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with CSKA Sofia 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.
OFI had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Estudiantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
OFI asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Hellas Syros will make the call about Krešimir Krizmanić this week. OFI have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad23 Aug 2027
13 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
OFI asked and Iraklis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
João Silva 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 watch every OFI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panionios runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 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 João Silva has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at OFI the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nikos Christogeorgos had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $350.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. PAOK drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Thiago Nuss 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.
OFI have gone to Iraklis with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borja González, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Nuss's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The offer from Panargiakos for Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
PAOK have accepted the money. What OFI do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Nikos Christogeorgos has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
OFI asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Borja González 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The phone has started ringing about Ilias Chatzitheodoridis again, and this time the name on the line is Panargiakos. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
$160.0K on the table at Iraklis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
OFI offered $410.0K; PAOK 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
João Silva 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kifisia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to PAOK 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.
Thiago Nuss 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. Eddie Salcedo 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 watch every OFI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panionios runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aaron Leya Iseka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Thiago Nuss 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.
$160.0K on the table at Iraklis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Nicholas Gioacchini from Asteras for $4.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
João Silva 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.
In brief
The dugoutThiago Nuss is still paying for one afternoon at OFI
The offer from Kalamata for Borja González 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Triantafyllos Pasalidis is a OFI player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Egaleo is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Niki Volos will make the call about Nikos Christogeorgos this week. OFI have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Borja González 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 name of Achilleas Poungouras has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jul 2027
João Silva 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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nikos Christogeorgos had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giannis Theodosoulakis is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
$560.0K on the table at Niki Volos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The deal with Egaleo 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Fehervar for Giannis Apostolakis 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $730.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Niki Volos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kostas Plegas is living that version at OFI, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
OFI and Niki Volos have settled on $730.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Niki Volos have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
The dugoutThiago Nuss is still being punished for one mistake
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
$700.0K on the table at Niki Volos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The name of Kostas Kostoulas has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI 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 Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Borja González 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.
17 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at OFI now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giannis Theodosoulakis, and the manager let it.
Squad31 May 2027
7 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ilija Vukotić has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyllian Gasnier is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eddie Salcedo signs something — a contract at OFI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and OFI have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFI. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
31 points in position 8: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Nuss's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at OFI 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 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 Giannis Theodosoulakis 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 OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Borja González 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Ilija Vukotić has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at OFI that is a harder question to answer.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eddie Salcedo signs something — a contract at OFI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFI. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Giannis Apostolakis has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. João Silva has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Thiago Nuss 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Nuss's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is 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.
3 goals in 18 games at Makedonikos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at OFI updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Borja González 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 Kyllian Gasnier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenzo Dickmann signs something — a contract at OFI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Juan Neira has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Eddie Salcedo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadEddie Salcedo is the talk of the training ground
Aitor Cantalapiedra 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everybody at OFI saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Junior Mendieta is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Kenan Kodro has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Nikos Athanasiou’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thanasis Mavropanos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vasileios Tzolis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Konstantinos Siopis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Spyridon Retsos has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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 Giannis Theodosoulakis has written the date down.
Giannis Apostolakis has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Kyllian Gasnier 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Thiago Nuss is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at OFI 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at OFI that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Kostas Kostoulas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Borja González 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Spyridon Tzolis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andreas Bouchalakis and OFI agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Borja González 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Thiago Nuss was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at OFI can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon OFI had all but put away. AEL Larisa will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Giannis Apostolakis, marked 7.67, 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about OFI and AEK in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Aitor Cantalapiedra 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 Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Aaron Leya Iseka to Volos NPS has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to OFI with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
OFI asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Aitor Cantalapiedra will call it something else in private.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.58, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Andreas Bouchalakis, marked 7.71, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at OFI 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Belgrano is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo 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. Estudiantes have kept their man, and OFI 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 OFI can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ilija Vukotić reports back to OFI with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ponferradina is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Athens Kallithea had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Borja González 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. OFI will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI 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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Thiago Nuss 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The name of Ilija Vukotić has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Eddie Salcedo 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.
OFI asked and Asteras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. OFI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Thiago Nuss 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aaron Leya Iseka. 2‑1 against Panathinaikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Spyridon Tzolis on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, OFI have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 watch every OFI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Asteras runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at OFI is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
0‑3 to Asteras, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 9, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Spyridon Tzolis to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
0‑1 to Volos NPS, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Spyridon Tzolis to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Juan Neira has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Nikos Athanasiou has moved up it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aitor Cantalapiedra. 2‑0 against AEL Larisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Spyridon Tzolis on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every OFI game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CSKA 1948 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AEK in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at OFI will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Spyridon Tzolis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
The dugoutKenan Kodro knocks on the manager’s door
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and OFI will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Spyridon Tzolis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Atromitos kept coming because nothing stopped them, and OFI will be asked about the last half hour all week.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Pablo Lara 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for OFI is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Kifisia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at OFI has been clear about where Giannis Theodosoulakis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ilias Chatzitheodoridis has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilias Chatzitheodoridis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at OFI 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at OFI that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFI. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Thiago Nuss 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Spyridon Tzolis after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and OFI will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyllian Gasnier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Panserraikos go through and OFI go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eddie Salcedo 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ginés Sorroche was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lorenzo Dickmann scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Dimitris Nikolaou 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taxiarchis Fountas 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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 OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cortulua is saying, and nobody at OFI is enjoying the guessing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Aaron Leya Iseka has his answer from OFI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Spyridon Tzolis left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kyllian Gasnier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aaron Leya Iseka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kampaniakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Aaron Leya Iseka reports back to OFI with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
OFI close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eddie Salcedo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Espanol have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what OFI can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
OFI 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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.
Borja González 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.
Add another name to the list: Asteras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kostas Kostoulas. The answer from OFI has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thiago Nuss. 2‑0 against Panserraikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Filip Bainović had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Krešimir Krizmanić reports back to OFI with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer from Slavia Mozyr for Klidman Lilo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Thiago Nuss again, and this time the name on the line is Panetolikos. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Borja González and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation OFI are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hellas Syros waiting with a shirt. Nobody at OFI is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$2.9M was the most the club would pay and Panathinaikos were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Thiago Nuss 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ginés Sorroche has just signed for OFI, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo 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 name of Achilleas Poungouras has come up in conversations OFI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from Iraklis for Thiago Nuss was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around OFI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kavala had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
$2.9M on the table at Panathinaikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Krešimir Krizmanić again, and this time the name on the line is Hellas Syros. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.1M — a club that wants Giorgos Kyriakopoulos enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Cortulua 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 phone has started ringing about Nikos Marinakis again, and this time the name on the line is Panionios. OFI are listening politely and promising nothing.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.