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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torpedo-BelAZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The offer from Nomme Kalju for Konstantinos Angelakis 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 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.
“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.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 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.
The offer from Panathinaikos 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Moisés Ramírez 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. AEL Larisa have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympiacos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Moisés Ramírez has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
In brief
SquadRemo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Podence
$2.8M was the most the club would pay and AEK 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 offer went to Kifisia 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.
Ayoub El Kaabi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Remo Freuler 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.
Derby days make names, and Ayoub El Kaabi made his against Panathinaikos. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ayoub El Kaabi scored in the 89th minute, Panathinaikos had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Olympiacos took the lot.
Position 3, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympiacos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Olympiacos offered $2.4M; OFI 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.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Panserraikos will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Olympiacos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympiacos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Panathinaikos for Lorenzo Scipioni 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.
“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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
Olympiacos offered $2.4M; Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Olympiacos asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$4.0M on the table at Panetolikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Olympiacos have gone to Volos NPS 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santiago Wanderers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Olympiacos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Leon Bailey takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leon Bailey provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remo Freuler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jota Silva wants continental football; whether Olympiacos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Volos NPS had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
109% of the income goes out in wages at Olympiacos
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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 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.
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.
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 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.
The phone has started ringing about Simos Mitoglou again, and this time the name on the line is Santiago Wanderers. Olympiacos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Remo Freuler 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 dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Podence
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.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juanmi is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jota Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. 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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Olympiacos had all but put away. Levadiakos will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Minute 94, against PAOK, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“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 15 say he has earned the hearing.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Olympiacos can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remo Freuler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chiquinho 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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Olympiacos had all but put away. Atromitos will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Olympiacos deserved better, and so did he.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Panagiotis Retsos's mistake
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.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Remo Freuler 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 21 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.
A 1‑0 win over Aris Thessaloniki, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chiquinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Clayton. 1‑0 against Levadiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
105% of the income goes out in wages at Olympiacos
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I 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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Olympiacos, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Iván Valenzuela is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Remo Freuler 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jota Silva wants continental football; whether Olympiacos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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 Chiquinho is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
7.76, 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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Remo Freuler 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcus Holmgren Pedersen wants continental football; whether Olympiacos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
21 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thanasis Papastathopulos after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Hugo Mallo
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Hezze wants continental football; whether Olympiacos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Puerta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gelson Martins. 2‑0 against Panserraikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Panathinaikos on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
At 19 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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Olympiacos, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jhon Ibargüen is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Olympiacos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Puerta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thanasis Papastathopulos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Volos NPS 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.
Gustavo Sá, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer from Sharjah for Joel Roca 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.
Chiquinho 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 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Remo Freuler 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leon Bailey. 2‑1 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 21 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Olympiacos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Olympiacos asked and Universitatea Craiova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I 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.
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.
In brief
SquadRemo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
“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.
Olympiacos offered $3.3M; Kifisia 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viking have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jota has, at Olympiacos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The phone has started ringing about Alexis Kalogeropoulos again, and this time the name on the line is Minsk. Olympiacos are listening politely and promising nothing.
$13.3M on the table at Pandurii. 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Kifisia 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ciprian Mihaila is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Ciprian Mihaila comes from Astra for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
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.
In brief
SquadRemo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
Olympiacos and Astra have settled on $2.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The chase for Othmane Boussaid ended with $1.3M changing hands and Aris Thessaloniki out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Othmane Boussaid has, at Olympiacos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cesena moved on, Joel Roca reports back to Olympiacos, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bruno Onyemaechi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jordi Alba is living that version at Olympiacos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Everything agreed with Aris Thessaloniki, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cádiz have kept their man, and Olympiacos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Chiquinho again, and this time the name on the line is FC Copenhagen. Olympiacos are listening politely and promising nothing.
The fee is $1.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Atromitos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
In brief
SquadRemo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hugo Mallo has, at Olympiacos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Olympiacos asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remo Freuler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Olympiacos, another week without a signature from Remo Freuler.
In brief
The dugoutChiquinho asks for a word with the manager