The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alexandros Galanopoulos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 The request is on a desk at Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Volos NPS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jan Hurtado reports back to Volos NPS with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías González and Volos NPS agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Keidi Bare 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jan Hurtado had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 The request is on a desk at Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Volos NPS close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything agreed with Panathinaikos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matías González wants continental football; whether Volos NPS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadKeidi Bare falls out with a teammate over standards
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Jan Hurtado had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Atromitos were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volos NPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cerro Porteno is saying, and nobody at Volos NPS is enjoying the guessing.
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
AEK paid $780.0K and Volos NPS took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A conversation is coming this week. Volos NPS will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Keidi Bare 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.
Volos NPS asked and Wigan Athletic said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Volos NPS have done the hard part with OFI, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lazaros Lamprou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volos NPS can pretend not to have heard.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jan Hurtado decided nobody was going anywhere. Aris Thessaloniki had no time left to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Keidi Bare 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFI have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Olympiacos for Marios Siabanis 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Volos NPS is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volos NPS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lazaros Lamprou 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 23 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.
Levadiakos made Volos NPS work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The mood at Volos NPS has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Gustavo Santos will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Volos NPS escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Santos provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Lazaros Lamprou 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 Dec 2026
Keidi Bare 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
Boardroom96% of the income goes out in wages at Volos NPS
The dugoutJan Hurtado is still being punished for one mistake
Adrià Vilanova 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 Keidi Bare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Volos NPS told Edgar Ié 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.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marios Siabanis 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.
Marked 9.71. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Volos NPS.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andreas Tachtsidis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Alexandros Galanopoulos kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Lazaros Lamprou was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Keidi Bare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giorgos Charalampoglou 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 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Lazaros Lamprou 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
Keidi Bare 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matías González wants continental football; whether Volos NPS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Gustavo Santos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. AEK had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Keidi Bare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Keidi Bare was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Position 12, 10 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alexandros Galanopoulos after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Ié 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Jan Hurtado is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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.
Lazaros Lamprou 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgos Charalampoglou and Volos NPS agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nikolaos Tzavellas 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. Vasileios Mandalos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volos NPS, another week without a signature from Edgar Ié.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexandros Galanopoulos after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edgar Ié trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutGiorgos Mygas dropped after a run of poor form
Looking aheadVolos NPS take on the side everybody is chasing
Marios Siabanis 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 Keidi Bare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 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 0‑2 Alexandros Galanopoulos left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Chances created: 9. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Adrià Vilanova 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 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Keidi Bare 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Santos. 1‑0 against Kifisia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alexandros Galanopoulos could afford to be generous.
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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Keidi Bare 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. Efthymios Pelkas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hjörtur Hermannsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
Lazaros Lamprou 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 Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgos Charalampoglou is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Lazaros Lamprou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Keidi Bare 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 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.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Matías González was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hjörtur Hermannsson 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel, and the manager let it.
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alexandros Galanopoulos to a room that had heard them before.
Volos NPS offered $1.1M; 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volos NPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Ié 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Efthymios Nikolaou has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The offer from Kryvbas for Giorgos Charalampoglou 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Volos NPS 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.
Volos NPS have gone to Aris Thessaloniki with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$250.0K was the most the club would pay and OFI were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Volos NPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Volos NPS offered $2.3M; Olympiacos 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.
Volos NPS have gone to OFI with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Edgar Ié 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keidi Bare is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Volos NPS will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
BoardroomVolos NPS turn down the training-ground plan
Joca has gone, the accounts have $3.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Volos NPS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Volos NPS have gone to Olympiacos 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.
Moreirense paid $3.4M and Volos NPS took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Volos NPS 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.
Keidi Bare and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Volos NPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Ié 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Volos NPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Edgar Ié has just signed for Volos NPS, and for once the answer mattered.
Lazaros Lamprou was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A conversation is coming this week. Volos NPS will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Keidi Bare 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jan Hurtado signs something — a contract at Volos NPS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Jan Hurtado
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: La Equidad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Volos NPS offered $410.0K; AEK said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chamois Niortais have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vasileios Fortounis 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. Nikolaos Torosidis 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. Michalis Ioannidis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Manolis Fortounis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nemanja Milojević has just signed for Volos NPS, and for once the answer mattered.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jan Hurtado wants continental football; whether Volos NPS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Keidi Bare was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Volos NPS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Nikos Grammatikakis has come up in conversations Volos NPS were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.