The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have 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 PAOK know it.
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 Andrija Živković signs something — a contract at PAOK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 PAOK would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at PAOK and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Jeremy Antonisse 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ioannis Samaris after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
Position 3, 16 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.
Ethan Pye 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PAOK told Dimitris Giannoulis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at PAOK has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Baptiste Santamaria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8.16. 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 8.16 — 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PAOK told Fedor Chalov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 PAOK, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ioannis Samaris on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.” Ioannis Samaris, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Harold Moukoudi wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fedor Chalov 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PAOK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 goals in 10 games at Cukaricki — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at PAOK updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 PAOK that is a harder question to answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAOK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.66 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 15-year-old it feels ownership of. Sotirios Androutsos 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.
Aris Thessaloniki will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. PAOK were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Fedor Chalov takes the afternoon — 8.78
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fedor Chalov provided it, and the 8.78 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. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A brace, and Fedor Chalov takes the afternoon — 8.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fedor Chalov provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
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.
2‑1 against Olympiacos, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
The deal that would have taken Kiril Despodov to Kalamata has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to PAOK with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The PAOK support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on 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 PAOK 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 PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; PAOK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around PAOK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
PAOK close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 28 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at PAOK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and PAOK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PAOK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dimitris Giannoulis wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Panathinaikos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
PAOK have gone to AEK 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Blau-Weiß Linz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giannis Michailidis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PAOK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Blau-Weiß Linz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Hellas Syros for Dejan Lovren 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.
PAOK have gone to AEK 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 name of Pantelis Hatzidiakos has come up in conversations PAOK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I watch every PAOK 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 Baptiste Santamaria is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kiril Despodov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from BK Hacken for Giannis Michailidis 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Harold Moukoudi wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Add another name to the list: Hellas Syros have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dejan Lovren. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
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.
54 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Athens Kallithea for Mady Camara 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.
Baptiste Santamaria 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Georgios Tsimikas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikolaos Tsadjaris is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I watch every PAOK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Niki Volos 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 Dimitris Giannoulis is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giannis Michailidis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Athens Kallithea will make the call about Mady Camara this week. PAOK have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and PAOK now know that too.
“I watch every PAOK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Panetolikos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAOK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Hellas Syros for Dejan Lovren 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Excelsior have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdellah Raihani. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at PAOK 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 PAOK, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Baptiste Santamaria is on it.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAOK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from FC Argeș for Giannis Michailidis 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.
PAOK had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at GKS Tychy, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Shola Shoretire 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.
Add another name to the list: Hellas Syros have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dejan Lovren. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
“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 PAOK know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at PAOK, another week without a signature from Shola Shoretire.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAOK lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PAOK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Ethan Pye arrives at PAOK in a $11.2M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. PAOK have paid $11.2M for Ethan Pye, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Apostolos Apostolopoulos comes from Panetolikos for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $11.2M for Ethan Pye, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PAOK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Stockport County 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Ilioupoli for Dejan Lovren 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.
PAOK have gone to Panetolikos 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.
Olympiacos paid $2.0M and PAOK took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dimitris Giannoulis wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAOK lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lechia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK 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 PAOK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to FC Eindhoven 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether PAOK can give him that is a question about the club, 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 PAOK 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 was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The phone has started ringing about Kiril Despodov again, and this time the name on the line is Panionios. PAOK are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PAOK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 PAOK 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 PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jeremy Antonisse has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
Baptiste Santamaria was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Efthymios Papanikolaou 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. Sotirios Androutsos 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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Anastasios Kourbelis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at PAOK 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PAOK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
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. PAOK will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Baptiste Santamaria is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at PAOK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at PAOK and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
“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; PAOK 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 Andrija Živković is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. PAOK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 shut-outs in 20 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Dimitris Monastirlis has been having a lot of them.
Position 4 on 54 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Quincy Butler 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at PAOK 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 Taha Ali is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at PAOK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
6 starts and an average of 6.63. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Squad10 May 2027
Taison is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Quincy Butler 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PAOK told Taison something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at PAOK 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at PAOK 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.” Antonis Tsiftsis has his answer from PAOK; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at PAOK 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. PAOK told Quincy Butler something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
20 appearances at Ypsonas and the goals have stopped going in. PAOK lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Position 4, 54 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
10 goals in 25 games at Vasas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at PAOK updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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. PAOK know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Magomed Ozdoev has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Andrija Živković’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether PAOK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Taison 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Something was said to Baptiste Santamaria and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mady Camara is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at PAOK 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 has re-ordered his thinking and Abdellah Raihani has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The offer from Helsingborg for Giannis Michailidis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAOK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Baptiste Santamaria is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Baptiste Santamaria signs something — a contract at PAOK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejan Lovren trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at PAOK the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Halmstad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at PAOK can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdellah Raihani is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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 Andrija Živković is on it.
20 appearances at Ypsonas and the goals have stopped going in. PAOK lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” GAIS had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Position 4 on 54 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Quincy Butler 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Asteras spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The offer from IFK Goteborg for Mady Camara 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.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 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 7.99 for the rest of 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.
Baptiste Santamaria 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“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 PAOK know it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at PAOK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Dimitris Giannoulis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and PAOK know it.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dimitris Giannoulis wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ioannis Samaris was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the PAOK dressing room was either.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giannis Michailidis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from BK Hacken for Mady Camara 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jaime Mata. 1‑0 against OFI, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Andrija Živković is on it.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Baba Rahman's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
8 goals in 21 games at Vasas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at PAOK updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The name of Giannis Michailidis has come up in conversations PAOK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Quincy Butler 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 watch every PAOK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ioannis Samaris to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Baba Rahman
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” AEK had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The name of Kiril Despodov has come up in conversations PAOK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$2.4M was the most the club would pay and Rapid Wien 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
PAOK close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mady Camara had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer went to Rapid Wien 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdellah Raihani reports back to PAOK with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. PAOK have paid $12.1M for Quincy Butler, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. PAOK have paid $5.7M for Harold Moukoudi, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
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 7.58 for the rest of 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 PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Jeremy Antonisse has come up in conversations PAOK were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
PAOK and AEK have settled on $5.7M. 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.
PAOK have gone to WSG Tirol 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 shirt still fits. Amr Warda is back at PAOK, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Amr Warda is living that version at PAOK, and it tends to show in the first month.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer went to Bloemfontein Celtic this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
PAOK asked and Al-Shabab 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. PAOK had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$390.0K settles it between the clubs for Amr Warda
Iraklis have accepted the money. What PAOK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Derby days make names, and Andrija Živković made his against Olympiacos. 2‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. PAOK will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The PAOK support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nobody at PAOK 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PAOK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether PAOK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 7.95. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy Antonisse is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It needed Jeremy Antonisse to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Panathinaikos, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Magomed Ozdoev scored, was marked 7.51, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Magomed Ozdoev. 2‑0 against Panserraikos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 5, 24 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.
“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 PAOK, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dejan Lovren
7.52, 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 PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jeremy Antonisse 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Abdellah Raihani obliged against Makedonikos. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is PAOK.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.55 — 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.
11 combined actions and 7.07. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It needed Taison to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AEL Larisa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Thomas Murg 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dimitris Giannoulis signs something — a contract at PAOK or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AEL Larisa in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at PAOK. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
3 goals in 9 games at Vasas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at PAOK updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
They sit in position 11 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy Antonisse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Ioannis Samaris kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at PAOK 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAOK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Something was said to Andrija Živković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy Antonisse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.90, 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether PAOK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
“I watch every PAOK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ypsonas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at PAOK, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout26 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.” Ioannis Samaris, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutBaba Rahman is still paying for one afternoon at PAOK
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 6.08 for the rest of it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giannis Gitersos is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy Antonisse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every PAOK game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutMady Camara is still being punished for one mistake
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Jiří Pavlenka
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Jeremy Antonisse 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 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.
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 said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Murg 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at PAOK has been clear about where Antonis Tsiftsis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Atromitos next, and one man in the PAOK dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PAOK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAOK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Ioannis Samaris left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Mady Camara
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mady Camara has come out of that comparison in the side, and PAOK have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. PAOK rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Kifisia had no answer to any of it.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 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 7.93 for the rest of it.
He is 19 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.
8.32. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy Antonisse 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Jiří Pavlenka's mistake
Kiril Despodov 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 Jeremy Antonisse was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ioannis Samaris chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at PAOK 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 PAOK can pretend not to have heard.
“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 PAOK hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and PAOK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ioannis Samaris after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The offer from Panathinaikos for Andrija Živković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at PAOK, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Anestis Mythou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
PAOK asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
PAOK close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
$1.6M was the most the club would pay and Asteras 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PAOK heard it as anything else.
Olympiacos next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy Antonisse is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.29, 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.
PAOK have gone to Asteras 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 RKC Waalwijk for Giannis Michailidis 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether PAOK can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Nikola Šipčić enough to be asked twice.
PAOK asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is going to Ajax, the club has $15.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from Egaleo for Anestis Mythou 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.
PAOK offered $2.2M; Aris Thessaloniki said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
$570.0K on the table at Aris Thessaloniki. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $600.0K — a club that wants Tasos Donis enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdellah Raihani 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 PAOK people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Panathinaikos for Jiří Pavlenka 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chania had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
AEK have accepted the money. What PAOK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$580.0K on the table at Panserraikos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $600.0K — a club that wants Vernon de Marco enough to be asked twice.
$4.0M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jeremy Antonisse is living that version at PAOK, and it tends to show in the first month.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $500.0K — a club that wants Seny Dieng enough to be asked twice.
PAOK have gone to Atromitos 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.
Baptiste Santamaria 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.
Add another name to the list: Zorya have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Greg Taylor. The answer from PAOK has not changed — yet.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kiril Despodov wants continental football; whether PAOK can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdellah Raihani 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.