Rafail Pettas 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christos Karanatsios is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Panargiakos is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
Christos Karanatsios was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pavlos Chatzidimitriou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Panargiakos will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christos Karanatsios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xandre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Siddick Aboubakar signs something — a contract at Panargiakos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Panargiakos will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Panargiakos will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Panargiakos close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 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.
Panargiakos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympiacos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Michalis Torosidis leaves with $55.0K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Panargiakos
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Rafail Pettas 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Movsesyan 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.
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Panargiakos asked and Asteras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Edgar Movsesyan has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Panargiakos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Siddick Aboubakar signs something — a contract at Panargiakos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panargiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Marko will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 11 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Christos Karanatsios 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panargiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 7.84 for the rest of it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos 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 mood at Panargiakos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Panargiakos
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Panargiakos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Christos Karanatsios 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadEdgar Movsesyan falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kostas Pomonis and Panargiakos agree another 3 years.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Rafail Pettas 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 Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Panargiakos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michalis Torosidis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Position 10 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Rafail Pettas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Michalis Torosidis to a room that had heard them before.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Panargiakos know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
8 new faces, and Panargiakos 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.” Michalis Torosidis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
0‑3 against Athens Kallithea, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giannis Kapetanos and Panargiakos agree another 4 years.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michalis Torosidis after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Position 9 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Panargiakos would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Movsesyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Edgar Movsesyan. 1‑0 against Marko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
119% of the income goes out in wages at Panargiakos
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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 Panargiakos know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Movsesyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 7.65 for the rest of it.
Rafail Pettas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davide Castelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The mood at Panargiakos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Egaleo next, and one man in the Panargiakos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Panargiakos would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Wassim Kamga has written the date down.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Christos Karanatsios 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.
23 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panargiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Panargiakos can tell you which week it ends in.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rafail Pettas 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armir Koxha 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.
9 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tasos Karagiozis and Panargiakos agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Panargiakos offered $92.0K; AEK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Panargiakos know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Panargiakos until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AEL Larisa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Panargiakos offered $87.0K; Anagennisi Karditsa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christos Karanatsios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Panargiakos are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Davide Castelli is 20, and Panargiakos have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Panargiakos
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 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.
Position 10 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Everything was agreed with AEK and then the doctor spoke. Panargiakos have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kostas Pomonis 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 Aug 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Karypidis 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.
Panargiakos have made the call to Niki Volos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Siddick Aboubakar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
OFI have accepted the money. What Panargiakos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Panargiakos asked and AEL Larisa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadDaouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos 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 Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
Panargiakos and OFI have settled on $640.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aris Thessaloniki have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Diallo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Kostas Pomonis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nestos Chrysoupoli have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Panserraikos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
12 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
The dugoutArber Cani asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have shaken hands with Anagennisi Karditsa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to OFI 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.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Panargiakos offered $42.0K; Nestos Chrysoupoli 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Panargiakos and OFI have settled on $700.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Panargiakos offered $610.0K; 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEK have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A loan enquiry to Aris Thessaloniki: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panargiakos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Panargiakos have gone to OFI with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PAOK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$42.0K on the table at Nestos Chrysoupoli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Panargiakos asked and Atromitos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Alexandros Tsimikas clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Michalis Torosidis recited it perfectly.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giorgos Zonios has, at Panargiakos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Kostas Pomonis 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 Daouda Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Alexandros Tsimikas leaves with $83.6K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Panargiakos is enjoying the guessing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Olympiacos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anagennisi Karditsa have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Diallo 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 stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have shaken hands with OFI; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$660.0K was the most the club would pay and OFI were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Karypidis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to OFI 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.
Kostas Pomonis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Diallo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arber Cani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panargiakos have done the hard part with Atromitos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panargiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thomas Gialamidis has his answer from Panargiakos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Daouda Diallo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laert Papa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Panargiakos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Kostas Pomonis 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 Kostas Karypidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Panargiakos is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Kostas Pomonis's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos 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.
“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; Panargiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Diallo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Panargiakos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Panargiakos will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Position 10 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Kostas Pomonis 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 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 Panargiakos know it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Laert Papa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The mood at Panargiakos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daouda Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Siddick Aboubakar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panargiakos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kostas Myrtollari has written the date down.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Alexandros Tsimikas recited it perfectly.
Kostas Pomonis 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 easiest signature of my career.” Kostas Panagiotou and Panargiakos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Petros Papanikolaou leaves with $17.7K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Kostas Pomonis has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Panargiakos are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Kostas Pomonis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Panargiakos would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panargiakos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laert Papa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panargiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Karypidis 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Panargiakos has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Panargiakos opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Daouda Diallo stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Panargiakos know it.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nikos Nikoletopoulos is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Siddick Aboubakar was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
MarketThe window shut and Arber Cani is still in the building
27Edition
The Panargiakos Courier
1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Panargiakos has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Panargiakos 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.
$170.0K was the most the club would pay and Atromitos 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Panargiakos will try again when the window opens; Anagennisi Karditsa may not be selling by then.
“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; Panargiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Aris Thessaloniki have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
$170.0K on the table at Atromitos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Panargiakos asked and Kavala 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pavlos Chatzidimitriou is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pavlos Chatzidimitriou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panargiakos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Panargiakos asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The medical room confirms 42 days on the sidelines for Andreas Manolas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Daouda Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Petros Papanikolaou to a room that had heard them before.
The deal with Atromitos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panargiakos can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Panargiakos
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Panargiakos can tell you which week it ends in.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Karypidis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Panargiakos can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Daouda Diallo 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.
15 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
7.62, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Panargiakos had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Petros Papanikolaou chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laert Papa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Olympiacos B defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Brahima Koné’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Panargiakos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Thomas Gialamidis is on it.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikos Karathanasis is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Kostas Pomonis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Petros Papanikolaou after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
7.71, 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kostas Pomonis and Panargiakos agree another 3 years.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Egaleo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
129% of the income goes out in wages at Panargiakos
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Panargiakos know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panargiakos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Petros Papanikolaou to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kostas Karypidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daouda Diallo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Panargiakos 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 speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Panargiakos would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panargiakos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikos Karathanasis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 10, 3 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Petros Papanikolaou left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laert Papa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑4 to Chania, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Panargiakos dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Papanikolaou after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Giannis Kapetanos has come out of that comparison in the side, and Panargiakos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panargiakos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals in one match, Bori Hallvaxhiu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Panargiakos and Panionios.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Papanikolaou after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadWords at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kostas Armenis
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panargiakos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 10 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Panargiakos can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Petros Papanikolaou was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Panargiakos dressing room was either.
In brief
SquadWords at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Athens Kallithea in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petros Papanikolaou after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Tasos Karagiozis is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Panionios go through and Panargiakos go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tasos Karagiozis: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Panargiakos had all but put away. Panionios will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panargiakos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
SquadLaert Papa falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Siddick Aboubakar's mistake
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Kostas Pomonis 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Panargiakos is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
Panargiakos ran out of time with Anagennisi Karditsa. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hellas Syros in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luka Kameni
The clubs have shaken hands with Anagennisi Karditsa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panargiakos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Panargiakos will try again when the window opens; Panserraikos may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEK have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laert Papa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kostas Panagiotou’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Panargiakos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Panargiakos. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Panargiakos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Panserraikos 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.
Kostas Pomonis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marko left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Petros Papanikolaou left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
In brief
Player ratingsArmir Koxha beats them one at a time
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Panargiakos have made the call to Levadiakos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Panargiakos have made the call to AEK. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Panargiakos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostas Karypidis 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.
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Kifisia 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.
Panargiakos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Panetolikos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Kostas Pomonis 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.
Panargiakos asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dimitrios Donis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Efthymios Pelkas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pavlos Georgiadis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Konstantinos Tachtsidis 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Karel Mustmaa is in the works
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kostas Pomonis has, at Panargiakos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kostas Pomonis and Panargiakos agree another 3 years.
Spyros Skondras was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levadiakos have kept their man, and Panargiakos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panargiakos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.