“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympiacos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ayoub El Kaabi 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.81 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympiacos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Olympiacos. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Panathinaikos next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Stefan Ortega'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.
Antonis Papakanellos 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Christos Torosidis kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Olympiacos, and 6 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Christos Torosidis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Olympiacos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I watch every Olympiacos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pafos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Ayoub El Kaabi is on it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonis Tsiftsis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leon Bailey signs something — a contract at Olympiacos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayoub El Kaabi. 2‑0 against Volos NPS, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Leon Bailey was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Olympiacos told Gelson Martins something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ayoub El Kaabi provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympiacos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Gelson Martins was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
“I watch every Olympiacos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Marko runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Olympiacos ran out of time with Panionios. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ayoub El Kaabi. 2‑0 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Antonis Papakanellos 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 watch every Olympiacos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PAS Giannina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Olympiacos 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadWords at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Olympiacos will try again when the window opens; AEK may not be selling by then.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against PAOK; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al Ahly moved on, Leon Bailey reports back to Olympiacos, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Olympiacos close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 29 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Olympiacos 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
PAOK next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Olympiacos, and 5 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ilioupoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Al Ahly have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leon Bailey. The answer from Olympiacos has not changed — yet.
Ayoub El Kaabi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Olympiacos
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Blau-Weiß Linz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to FCSB 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympiacos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Olympiacos asked and AEK 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 offer from Estrela da Amadora for Antonis Tsiftsis 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
Ayoub El Kaabi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Olympiacos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer went to Blau-Weiß Linz 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 Antonis Tsiftsis has come up in conversations Olympiacos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Giorgos Nikolaidis 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 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 Ayoub El Kaabi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gelson Martins signs something — a contract at Olympiacos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Giorgos Masouras 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.
Position 2, 59 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.
He is going to Pescara, the club has $16.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fashion Sakala 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eleftherios Mitroglou has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympiacos 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.” Modena had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from AS Nancy for Luka Jović 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 watch every Olympiacos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Marko 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonis Tsiftsis 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 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.
The offer from Dukla Prague for Antonis Tsiftsis 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.
Ayoub El Kaabi 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Olympiacos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Olympiacos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
“I watch every Olympiacos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pafos 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gelson Martins signs something — a contract at Olympiacos 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 Olympiacos have no good answer.
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 Rúben Vezo has written the date down.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kifisia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Panagiotis Retsos and Olympiacos agree another 4 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 Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Olympiacos, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gustavo Puerta was one of the reasons people came, and $17.2M does not replace that by itself.
Add another name to the list: Varzim have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Diogo Nascimento. The answer from Olympiacos has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Olympiacos know it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jota Silva had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There are signings and there are signings that come with a second helping of satisfaction. Olympiacos have taken Antonis Tsiftsis from a club they measure themselves against, and the pleasure of that will outlast the transfer window.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antonis Tsiftsis is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fashion Sakala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Olympiacos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every 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 Leon Bailey is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Nikolaidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Olympiacos 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Add another name to the list: Hermannstadt have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jota Silva. The answer from Olympiacos has not changed — yet.
Fashion Sakala and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Olympiacos 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.
29 appearances at OFK Beograd and the goals have stopped going in. Olympiacos lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The offer from Atromitos for Gustavo Puerta 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $10.1M has been paid because Fashion Sakala is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympiacos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fashion Sakala has just signed for Olympiacos, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEK have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Olympiacos now know that too.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Hazem keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Olympiacos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$10.1M on the table at Al-Fayha. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympiacos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ayoub El Kaabi 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lorenzo Scipioni and Olympiacos agree another 5 years.
Lorenzo Scipioni 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.
19 appearances and 5 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and Olympiacos 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.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Olympiacos has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
4 goals in 27 games at FC Nantes — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympiacos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“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 Olympiacos, 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. Olympiacos will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustavo Puerta signs something — a contract at Olympiacos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 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 Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emam Ashour trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 goals in 25 games at FC Argeș — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympiacos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Armando González has written the date down.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Olympiacos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Olympiacos told Leon Bailey something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Stefan Ortega is on it.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Ponferradina suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Olympiacos, and the summer will force it.
In brief
SquadAmir Taremi is the talk of the training ground
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos 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 Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Olympiacos 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustavo Puerta signs something — a contract at Olympiacos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
29 appearances at OFK Beograd and the goals have stopped going in. Olympiacos lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Gabriel Kodrasi 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 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 Ayoub El Kaabi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Olympiacos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
SquadClayton is training like a man with a point to make
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Remo Freuler is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympiacos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 13 games at Gimnàstic — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympiacos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Kodrasi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympiacos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ayoub El Kaabi 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.
Something was said to Gustavo Puerta and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ayoub El Kaabi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Olympiacos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Stefan Ortega is on it.
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. Gustavo Sá has moved up 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 Olympiacos, 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 Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Kodrasi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 Leon Bailey is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
29 appearances at OFK Beograd and the goals have stopped going in. Olympiacos lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Olympiacos scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Olympiacos know it.
Emam Ashour and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Clayton was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Emam Ashour had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Position 2 on 59 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fanis Bakoulas scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
“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 Olympiacos know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Olympiacos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Olympiacos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Olympiacos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from AIK for Emam Ashour 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Olympiacos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Aris Thessaloniki had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Leon Bailey is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos 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. Olympiacos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panargiakos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ayoub El Kaabi 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: Clayton. 2‑0 against AEK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympiacos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gustavo Puerta 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympiacos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is saying, and nobody at Olympiacos is enjoying the guessing.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $10.1M has been paid because Luka Jović is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympiacos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Olympiacos and Al-Qadisiyah have settled on $7.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Olympiacos, 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA brace, and Gustavo Sá takes the afternoon — 8.37
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Niki Volos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Olympiacos have paid $9.3M for Emam Ashour, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Emam Ashour is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympiacos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al Ahly; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bloemfontein Celtic is saying, and nobody at Olympiacos is enjoying the guessing.
Olympiacos have gone to Athletic Bilbao 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.
Basaksehir paid $9.0M and Olympiacos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Mlada Boleslav for Bruno Onyemaechi 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.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Bloemfontein Celtic 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.
The offer from AEK for Chiquinho 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 Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Banfield paid $15.7M and Olympiacos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos 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 words a physio says slowly. 78 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. Ayoub El Kaabi provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Ayoub El Kaabi in the middle of it, and Panetolikos unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
Player ratingsLeon Bailey was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Looking aheadThe neighbours are next for Olympiacos
The dugoutRemo Freuler has become a man the manager trusts
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympiacos 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 Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Remo Freuler and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 17 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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympiacos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Kifisia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Santiago Hezze 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.
50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Panagiotis Santis provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Olympiacos and Aris Thessaloniki in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Olympiacos and Nestos Chrysoupoli, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Puerta provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Puerta. 3‑1 against Levadiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton 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.
Aris Thessaloniki next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Olympiacos, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Clayton trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Levadiakos next, and one man in the Olympiacos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Olympiacos supporters have already started telling 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Olympiacos, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ayoub El Kaabi provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Konstantinos Angelakis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Santiago Hezze 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 Clayton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bruno Onyemaechi has his answer from Olympiacos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Ayoub El Kaabi is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kostas Fortounis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Olympiacos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Onyemaechi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
500 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gustavo Sá
Boardroom106% of the income goes out in wages at Olympiacos
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kostas Fortounis provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gustavo Puerta scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Remo Freuler 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Remo Freuler and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton 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 Olympiacos 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Christos Torosidis, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutStefan Ortega has become a man the manager trusts
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Olympiacos man
Derby days make names, and Ayoub El Kaabi made his against PAOK. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Legia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Olympiacos supporters have already started telling it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympiacos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Christos Torosidis could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutAyoub El Kaabi has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympiacos can pretend not to have heard.
Olympiacos offered $6.5M; Al-Qadisiyah 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Konstantinos Angelakis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
$2.1M on the table at Legia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Olympiacos 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.
Add another name to the list: Metalist have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Santiago Hezze. The answer from Olympiacos has not changed — yet.
Nair Tiknizyan 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. PAOK on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Olympiacos, and it is not being withdrawn.
$6.5M on the table at Al-Qadisiyah. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.5M — a club that wants Christian Kouamé enough to be asked twice.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Olympiacos
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympiacos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $8.8M has been paid because Amir Taremi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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 deal with Viking 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Amir Taremi has, at Olympiacos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympiacos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer went to Padideh 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ethnikos Achnas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Olympiacos asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mansur has just signed for Olympiacos, and for once the answer mattered.
Santiago Hezze 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympiacos 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 announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olympiacos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Santiago Hezze had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Atromitos have accepted the money. What Olympiacos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Dijon for Jota Silva 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
The phone has started ringing about Clayton again, and this time the name on the line is Famalicao. Olympiacos 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 $1.1M — a club that wants Jeremy Antonisse enough to be asked twice.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Olympiacos heard it as anything else.
The phone has started ringing about Santiago Hezze again, and this time the name on the line is Petrolul Ploiești. Olympiacos are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lorenzo Pirola wants continental football; whether Olympiacos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.