22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at PAS Giannina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at PAS Giannina can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonny Arriba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Astals was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at PAS Giannina can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAS Giannina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sebastián D'Angelo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at PAS Giannina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Astals is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at PAS Giannina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAS Giannina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Jonny Arriba 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 words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
“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 PAS Giannina, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastián D'Angelo and PAS Giannina agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Alexis Kalogeropoulos 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
David Astals 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Kavala had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Alexis Kalogeropoulos 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
David Astals 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
122% of the income goes out in wages at PAS Giannina
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at PAS Giannina can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑1 to Niki Volos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at PAS Giannina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giannis Christopoulos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 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 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.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PAS Giannina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jaroslav Navrátil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
David Astals 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PAS Giannina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Niki Volos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Astals was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Half the programme played, position 9, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evangelos Tsadjaris to a room that had heard them before.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 PAS Giannina, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 PAS Giannina know 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 PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonny Arriba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
122% of the income goes out in wages at PAS Giannina
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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the PAS Giannina dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Alexis Kalogeropoulos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
David Astals 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.
PAOK B left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evangelos Tsadjaris to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Anderson Magrão and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ramón Lentini has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Jacques Bayo damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 38, 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 PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Astals 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Evangelos Tsadjaris on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAS Giannina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alexis Kalogeropoulos 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 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jonny Arriba 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.
Sebastián D'Angelo is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Facundo Romero is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. PAS Giannina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Alexis Kalogeropoulos 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at PAS Giannina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Astals 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.
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.
A point taken on 89 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.
22 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.
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. PAS Giannina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jaroslav Navrátil 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Astals 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.
Egaleo held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. PAS Giannina answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
100 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonny Arriba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dylan Tutonda 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: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Evangelos Tsadjaris to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Astals was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and PAS Giannina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and PAS Giannina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Evangelos Tsadjaris on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Kavala next, and one man in the PAS Giannina dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at PAS Giannina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at PAS Giannina 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and PAS Giannina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giannis Christopoulos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. PAS Giannina will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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 PAS Giannina will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The chase for Giannis Sardelis ended with $360.0K changing hands and Athens Kallithea out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at PAS Giannina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonny Arriba 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 PAS Giannina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
22 new faces, and PAS Giannina 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what PAS Giannina can pretend not to have heard.
Jonny Arriba 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.
Athens Kallithea wanted more than $19.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad24 Aug 2026
David Astals falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. PAS Giannina will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giorgos Krimitzas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and PAS Giannina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at PAS Giannina has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PAS Giannina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $20.0K — a club that wants Wiktor Matyjewicz enough to be asked twice.
PAS Giannina have gone to Athens Kallithea 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and PAS Giannina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. PAS Giannina know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. PAS Giannina will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonny Arriba has just signed for PAS Giannina, and for once the answer mattered.
Jaroslav Navrátil 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jonny Arriba 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kostas Mitroglou 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Spyridon Tsimikas 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and PAS Giannina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and PAS Giannina 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.