The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panionios, another week without a signature from Marc Llinares.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexandros Voilis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Panionios needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Sotiris Kontouris 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.
6 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rui Pedro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Eleftherios Mandalos after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Panionios has been clear about where Nikos Giannakopoulos stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panionios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rui Pedro 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ulrich Fokam is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sotiris Kontouris is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Panionios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
17 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.
Ilioupoli next, and one man in the Panionios dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bakary Haïdara signs something — a contract at Panionios or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Rui Pedro falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panionios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Panionios know it.
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Panionios had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Eleftherios Mandalos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Anthony Belmonte obliged against Panargiakos. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Panionios.
Dimitris Kolovos had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Egaleo were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rui Pedro 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.
Felipe Felício 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: 44. 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 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.
Jorge Díaz 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 is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Eleftherios Mandalos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Panionios is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Panionios can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rui Pedro 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fotios Alexiou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panionios, another week without a signature from Marc Llinares.
“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 Panionios, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Panionios have done the hard part with Anagennisi Karditsa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Panionios until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $660.8K — a club that wants Michalis Bousis enough to be asked twice.
Sotiris Kontouris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rui Pedro 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Panionios know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rui Pedro provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Anagennisi Karditsa 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 chase for Dušan Stoiljković ended with $600.0K changing hands and Niki Volos out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer went to Niki Volos 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 $625.6K — a club that wants Dušan Stoiljković enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Panionios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rui Pedro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Godoy Cruz have kept their man, and Panionios go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Nikos Peios has come up in conversations Panionios were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Panionios are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Chania next, and one man in the Panionios dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Panionios know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ioan Yakovlev was one of the reasons people came, and $430.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Achyronas-Onisilos for Felipe Felício 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.
Panionios 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.
Adriano Bregu was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $350.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rui Pedro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Panionios know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Panionios, another week without a signature from Marc Llinares.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Universitario is saying, and nobody at Panionios is enjoying the guessing.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Filip Bainović from OFI for $860.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Panionios asked and Omonoia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manolis Mavropanos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christos Tzolis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Efthymios Diamantakos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The 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.
Felipe Felício 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.
Panionios have gone to OFI with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jorge Díaz commits to Panionios for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jorge Díaz 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panionios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.