26 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ricardo Velho: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Panathinaikos had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Triantafyllos Tsapras 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 Anass Zaroury was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Leon Bailey is on it.
9 shut-outs in 17 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ramiro Macagno has been having a lot of them.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Ofori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adriano Jagušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ricardo Velho has moved up it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panathinaikos has been clear about where Dimitris Pelkas stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
10 goals in 24 games at Asteras — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Panathinaikos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Panathinaikos will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anass Zaroury was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Panathinaikos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kelvin Ofori has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Panathinaikos told Gustavo Puerta something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
17 appearances at Niki Volos and the goals have stopped going in. Panathinaikos lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Panathinaikos has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Ofori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adriano Jagušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Damián Puebla is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Lorenzo Pirola is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Panathinaikos would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Anass Zaroury 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Étienne Camara has his answer from Panathinaikos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
11 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Leon Bailey obliged against Niki Volos. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panathinaikos.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panathinaikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Étienne Camara will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Étienne Camara has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adriano Jagušić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Stefan de Vrij and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adriano Jagušić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Panathinaikos can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
5 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Leon Bailey is on it.
10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adriano Jagušić. 1‑0 against Athens Kallithea, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Anass Zaroury 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.
24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Gustavo Puerta and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Luke McNally has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Panathinaikos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
In brief
SquadAdriano Jagušić falls out with a teammate over standards
8 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.
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.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Gustavo Puerta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Álex Méndez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Aidon Shehu has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
In brief
SquadAnass Zaroury falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsLeon Bailey was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I 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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Ofori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
Panathinaikos asked and Internacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Derby days make names, and Azzedine Ounahi made his against Olympiacos. 3‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
22 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kauno Zalgiris had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal that would have taken Étienne Camara to OFI has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Panathinaikos with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $16.6M has been paid because Damián Puebla is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
53 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Damián Puebla has, at Panathinaikos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Panathinaikos and a story that will outlast his contract.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Panathinaikos asked and Universidad Catolica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Panathinaikos offered $8.2M; PAOK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Azzedine Ounahi scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
In brief
Player ratingsChiquinho pops up at the right end — 7.65
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Panathinaikos offered $26.7M; Santos 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botev Vratsa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Atromitos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.1M for Gustavo Puerta, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gustavo Puerta is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Chania for Figueiredo 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.
Atromitos have accepted the money. What Panathinaikos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$25.9M on the table at Santos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panserraikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 2, 44 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Panathinaikos will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrews Tetteh provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.53, 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.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
4 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Álex Méndez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Stefan de Vrij 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.36, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
7 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A 3‑1 win over Athens Kallithea, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Leon Bailey was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. 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.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
7.79, 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.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefan de Vrij and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at BATE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match1 Dec 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Panathinaikos. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A brace, and Lenny Lobato takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lenny Lobato provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Azzedine Ounahi, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lorenzo Pirola and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Panathinaikos 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.
“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; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Lorenzo Pirola is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I 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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Stefan de Vrij 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Andrews Tetteh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Panathinaikos.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Panathinaikos 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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide Calabria and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Leon Bailey is on it.
Derby days make names, and Lorenzo Pirola made his against Olympiacos. 4‑2, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Position 2, 21 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.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Panathinaikos supporters have already started telling it.
6 goals in one match, Lorenzo Pirola on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Chiquinho 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.
Something was said to Anass Zaroury and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Olympiacos on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vasileios Fortounis to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Ofori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Stefan de Vrij and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. AEK on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Panathinaikos would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lorenzo Pirola’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Panathinaikos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5 shut-outs in 6 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Ramiro Macagno has been having a lot of them.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Panathinaikos that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutFigueiredo asks for a word with the manager
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Miloš Pantović’s exile
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Chances created: 18. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dimitris Giannoulis and Panathinaikos agree another 4 years.
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.
In brief
Squad5 Panathinaikos players away with their countries
12 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrews Tetteh provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A 2‑0 win over Kalamata, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Panathinaikos 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.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Álex Méndez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Lorenzo Pirola 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.
11 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.
8 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Azzedine Ounahi scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Leon Bailey 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Botev Plovdiv for Pavlos Pantelidis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Panathinaikos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Panathinaikos know 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.
7 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
7.99, 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dimitris Giannoulis has just signed for Panathinaikos, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Panathinaikos 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Panetolikos for Figueiredo 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.
Panathinaikos and PAOK have settled on $950.0K. 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
9 academy players handed senior numbers at Panathinaikos
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.
Stefan de Vrij 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
In brief
Player ratingsYvann Maçon beats them one at a time
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Figueiredo has come up in conversations Panathinaikos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Lorenzo Pirola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Chiquinho falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panathinaikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Baba Rahman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Panathinaikos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
“I did not go to Athens Kallithea to sit and watch. I want to come back to Panathinaikos and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Panathinaikos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Panathinaikos have no good answer.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Panathinaikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chiquinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Leon Bailey and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Étienne Camara 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
11 new faces, and Panathinaikos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stefan de Vrij is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panathinaikos, another week without a signature from Diego Esteban.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Stefan de Vrij 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Panathinaikos can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panathinaikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Panathinaikos 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.
“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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panathinaikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Étienne Camara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athens Kallithea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Anagennisi Karditsa for Kelvin Ofori was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Panathinaikos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Étienne Camara 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 Panathinaikos 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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panathinaikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Kalamata paid $8.2M and Panathinaikos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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 Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Iraklis 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.
Panathinaikos offered $4.4M; Académico de Viseu 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.
Panathinaikos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PAOK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panathinaikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botev Plovdiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Volos NPS is saying, and nobody at Panathinaikos is enjoying the guessing.
Panathinaikos have gone to Académico de Viseu 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.
AEK paid $5.9M and Panathinaikos took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Panathinaikos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Panathinaikos is enjoying the guessing.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Panathinaikos and PAOK have settled on $480.0K. 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.
Panathinaikos 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.
Panathinaikos have gone to PAOK 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Giannis Kosti enough to be asked twice.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Panathinaikos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympique de Marseille, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Business between these two is never simply business. Panathinaikos wanted Lorenzo Pirola, AEK did not want to sell to them of all clubs, and the signature at the end of it says who won that argument.
$15.9M on the table at Hajduk Split. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botev Plovdiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Panathinaikos 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lorenzo Pirola is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panathinaikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to Olympique de Marseille this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Aris Thessaloniki for Santino Andino was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to AEK this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$3.8M was the most the club would pay and PAOK 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.
Panathinaikos have gone to PAOK 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.
Kings Kangwa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 name of Giorgos Katris has come up in conversations Panathinaikos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
MarketAnass Zaroury comes back from a loan that worked
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Panathinaikos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panathinaikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
18 games, 9 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Panathinaikos now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Azzedine Ounahi signs something — a contract at Panathinaikos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Andrews Tetteh obliged against Olympiacos. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panathinaikos.
9 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.
5 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Panathinaikos have had the benefit of it.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Panathinaikos supporters have already started telling it.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Panathinaikos know it.
Nobody at Panathinaikos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Panathinaikos have no good answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Figueiredo has written the date down.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefan de Vrij and Panathinaikos 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 Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panathinaikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Andrews Tetteh is on it.
The captaincy has been taken off Davide Calabria. Panathinaikos will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athens Kallithea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Figueiredo has written the date down.
Leon Bailey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Leon Bailey is on it.
9 goals in 18 games at AEL Larisa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Panathinaikos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
9 goals in 24 games at Atromitos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Panathinaikos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Álex Méndez has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Leon Bailey’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panathinaikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stefan de Vrij 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Figueiredo has written the date down.
Yvann Maçon has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Andrews Tetteh plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davide Calabria and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramiro Macagno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Panathinaikos that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panathinaikos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide Calabria and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years.
Yvann Maçon was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athens Kallithea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Leon Bailey
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Leon Bailey has come out of that comparison in the side, and Panathinaikos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Azzedine Ounahi is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramiro Macagno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
9 goals in 24 games at Atromitos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Panathinaikos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Panathinaikos that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Panathinaikos that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Panathinaikos that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Kings Kangwa obliged against PAOK. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panathinaikos.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panathinaikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I 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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Kristiyan Stoyanov 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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Kings Kangwa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I 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 Panathinaikos know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Baba Rahman
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Santino Andino
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 58 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match10 Mar 2029
Another one collected away from home
8 on the bounce on the road for Panathinaikos. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panathinaikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitris Chatsidis has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kristiyan Stoyanov scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Figueiredo
90 minutes played. Adriano Jagušić found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Chania went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match24 Feb 2029
Another one collected away from home
7 on the bounce on the road for Panathinaikos. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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 7.82 for the rest of it.
Stefan de Vrij 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 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.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kings Kangwa 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 point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Leon Bailey is on it.
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.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Up for the corner, and Kings Kangwa delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kings Kangwa scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
Yvann Maçon 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.
45 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Panathinaikos and a story that will outlast his contract.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Asteras is saying, and nobody at Panathinaikos is enjoying the guessing.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ricardo Velho has, at Panathinaikos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.0M has been paid because Ricardo Velho is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Panathinaikos have gone to Levadiakos 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.
Kristiyan Stoyanov 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Moreirense for Leon Bailey 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.
Panathinaikos asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The fee is $1.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Anagennisi Karditsa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. James Maxwell has, at Panathinaikos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Olympiacos will not enjoy the photographs. Leon Bailey has signed for Panathinaikos, and everyone involved understands that this particular deal was never only about football.
Panathinaikos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fluminense have kept their man, and Panathinaikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leon Bailey is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs have shaken hands with Olympiacos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panathinaikos have done the hard part with OFI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Panathinaikos have gone to Aris Thessaloniki 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 offer from Aris Thessaloniki for Dimitris Pelkas was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Panathinaikos have had the benefit of it.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Kings Kangwa 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Tasos Bakasetas had Panathinaikos level again within 2 minutes, and Iraklis never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Figueiredo
BoardroomWages swallow 103% of the Panathinaikos income
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrews Tetteh. 1‑0 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.93 on the card, and the Panathinaikos support went home talking about one name.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Vasileios Fortounis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Andrews Tetteh is on it.
Position 2, 30 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
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.” Vasileios Fortounis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Position 1, 29 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Vasileios Fortounis left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Santino Andino has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adriano Jagušić provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.82, 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrews Tetteh signs something — a contract at Panathinaikos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kelvin Ofori has written the date down.
Marked 9.67 — 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Andrews Tetteh in the middle of it, and Aris Thessaloniki unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“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 Panathinaikos know it.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
8 goals in 10 games at AEL Larisa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Panathinaikos updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Levadiakos will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Panathinaikos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Adriano Jagušić wants continental football; whether Panathinaikos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Panathinaikos and Levadiakos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vasileios Fortounis after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Andrews Tetteh is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ramiro Macagno
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Olympiacos on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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.
Davide Calabria 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Panathinaikos will be judged on one thing only.
“I did not go to Athens Kallithea to sit and watch. I want to come back to Panathinaikos and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Panathinaikos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Azzedine Ounahi signs something — a contract at Panathinaikos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
AEK next, and one man in the Panathinaikos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Panathinaikos that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Panathinaikos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4‑0, and Kings Kangwa took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Panathinaikos tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A brace, and Kings Kangwa takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kings Kangwa provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefan de Vrij and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefan de Vrij and Panathinaikos agree another 2 years.
Stefan de Vrij 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.
8.01. 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.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tasos Bakasetas provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
5 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.
Yvann Maçon 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“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; Panathinaikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every Panathinaikos game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athens Kallithea runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panathinaikos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Iraklis in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Kings Kangwa is still in the building
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Andrews Tetteh decided nobody was going anywhere. OFI had no time left to answer.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albirex Niigata have kept their man, and Panathinaikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $40.0K of what Panathinaikos paid for Nikos Melissas is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 29 gone
That is the business done at Panathinaikos 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.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santino Andino wants continental football; whether Panathinaikos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Simon Sluga has, at Panathinaikos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Davide Calabria was at the centre of it, PAOK were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
Panathinaikos offered $6.4M; 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.
The offer from Montana for Kristiyan Stoyanov 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.
4 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.
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 7.82 for the rest of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.8M — a club that wants Thiago Nuss enough to be asked twice.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
The phone has started ringing about Kristiyan Stoyanov again, and this time the name on the line is Artis Brno. Panathinaikos are listening politely and promising nothing.
Davide Calabria 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 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Panathinaikos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Panathinaikos asked and OFI said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Asteras drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Álex Méndez is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Stefan de Vrij was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panathinaikos can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Panathinaikos, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Anagennisi Karditsa 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.
“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 Panathinaikos know it.
Kings Kangwa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Panathinaikos 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dimitris Pelkas has his answer from Panathinaikos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Panathinaikos offered $280.0K; AEL Larisa 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Zamalek will make the call about Azzedine Ounahi this week. Panathinaikos have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“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 Panathinaikos know it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Manolas 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stavros Vlachodimos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Yvann Maçon 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Sociedad is saying, and nobody at Panathinaikos is enjoying the guessing.
The name of Azzedine Ounahi has come up in conversations Panathinaikos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The chase for Diego Esteban ended with $1.3M changing hands and Makedonikos out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Panathinaikos hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $300.4K — a club that wants Andreas Makris enough to be asked twice.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Esteban is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slavia Mozyr waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Kwadwo Opoku ended with $1.4M changing hands and Egaleo out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kwadwo Opoku is living that version at Panathinaikos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Panathinaikos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$57.0M was the most the club would pay and Newcastle United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panathinaikos have done the hard part with Egaleo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ for Giannis Apostolakis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Panathinaikos heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Isidoros Koutsidis enough to be asked twice.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Panathinaikos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Panathinaikos have gone to Newcastle United 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $18.1M has been paid because Figueiredo is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torpedo-BelAZ waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Panathinaikos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Panathinaikos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Figueiredo has just signed for Panathinaikos, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Panathinaikos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panathinaikos have done the hard part with Académica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Panathinaikos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Panathinaikos have gone to Derby County 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panathinaikos can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with AEL Larisa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santino Andino wants continental football; whether Panathinaikos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panathinaikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.