Bananas

Greek football has been on a downward spiral for a while now and I don’t see how it can be reversed. In the old days (not that long ago actually) you had maybe half a dozen players leave Greece at most. Only the absolute best players played outside Greece. Now they flee at the first opportunity because the money outside of Greece has grown massively. It wasn’t like this even 15 years ago. If it was 15 years ago in all likelihood Limnios, Giannoulis, Tzolis, Pelkas would still be playing for us. There is the beginning of your core group. You build around them and fill in the gaps with quality players. Now ? Anytime someone is even an ok player they leave overseas. I can’t blame them. I’m just saying it wasn’t like this and the quality of our teams was a lot better than today. It’s difficult to make a “team” that can last more than a season or two. Add to that the game has changed in terms of player fitness and tactics and I think the coaches in Greece have been left behind. We are 20th in the UEFA rankings and in all fairness we are where we deserve to be. Our teams get smashed in Europe by teams I’ve never heard of these days.

Overall, that is very good deal. Let's hope that it's true. 😀

+1. We definitely need him for certain games and opposition. He has a place in the team. Hopefully Lucescu can get more out of him.

It’s very likely he’ll get pissy for a while. He can’t push it too far though because I don’t imagine Lucescu will stand for it. The best “fix” is if the team is doing well. You will be surprised how envious and jealous players get at not being able to participate in that. As for banging egelzes, I’m sure he can find Russian hookers somewhere that can mimic an English accent. Chuck a wig on them, pack on the make up and he should be good, ha ha. Anyway let’s see what happens.

Looking at the big picture, at some point you gotta make a stand. We get pushed around with most of our sales (and even buys). Olympiacos get the price they want and clubs that want to buy off them know how it is. This didn't just happen overnight. Ultimately, if we don't sell and Tzolis has a good season (and there is not reason why he shouldn't) then we'll get the money we want for him.

Mak and Rodrigues, in other words proper actual real wingers. How hard is it to see ? Instead we have El Khaddori and Zivkovic (both capable and technical but not wingers). Add to their lack of run the pappou club of Kagawa and Diego who both can’t be assed running and our entire attacking line lacks some serious run. Good for playing crappy teams in GSL. Not so good for Europe. It’s a worry.

Well, bit of a surprise result or should I not be surprised ? I guess we'll see in the return leg. Then of course there is the next round which by the sounds of our overall play today we will cop a thrashing. Worrying developments all round. Having one weak position on the pitch is not good, two or more and you're putting yourself in a precarious position. Judging by the comments in this thread it sounds like we had 8 weak positions today. Did anybody play ok ?

Well, we did have Warda ... either way relying on Kagawa who frankly showed nothing last season is a bit of a gamble.

Double damn. It's a real shame as everyone knows he has a great second half of the season. He is also the only player I can think of in the squad that has that "x" factor who on his day can turn a game around. The last players we had that were like that were Henrique and Rodrigues. Yes, you can't rely on them for consistency but on their day they could devastate the opposition. Always handy to have a player like that.

https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-transfer-rumours-paok-christos-tzolis-8189810 Given his poor form towards the end of last season I don’t know if we will will get a better offer than this. Take the money and run.

That’s a @Blackhawkquestion. I know in the year we won the title our wages were very roughly 15 million (not including tax which added another 40%) and our budget was comparable to Olympiacos (although there’s was still a bit higher). Now the tax rate is in the twenties I think so that helps quite a lot. We lowered our budget a lot in the last couple of years (FFP).

It’s risks like these that could be Lucescu’s undoing. And I don’t want that because I really believe if he’s left alone and given an adequate budget he can win us another title.

NFI why we are even trying to sign this guy. He's 34 years old and he scored 1 (yes one) goal all of last season in the Saudi league. 1.2 million is laughable let alone 1.8 million. I am seriously hoping it's all just fake news.

A game that lasts 5 days and has a very good chance that it ends in a draw. Why would you want to mess with that ? 😀

I’ll tune in if you can get paschalis on there. I need a laugh.

What's the big deal with Oliveira ? Should we be happy he could be our next striker ? His stats are unimpressive to say the least.

Some solid friendlies there to test out the boys. Good to see.

Good to hear about Yiankos. Pass him on our love the big lug.

@PaokCT get of em in there. Blackhawk, pash, dutch. Make it a party.

C'mon pash. Just get in there buddy. It's always interesting to hear people's voices. It is *always* different to what you expect. I won't say what I expect.

I actually think Limnios could make a killer fullback or wing back assuming of course he was willing to put his ego aside and play the role. He’s not a real winger. He has some good attacking instincts and gets up and down the line well though. I guess we’ll see in the coming weeks if this is real or not. Expect truck loads of rubbish stories in the mean time. Journalists gotta write.

One day someone might sit down with Masouras and teach him how to finish. Seriously terrible in front of goal. That first chance he just had to make sure he lifted the ball 6 to 12 inches over the keepers outstretch leg and it's in. Maybe if he had a pappou with a vitsa that whacked him each time he missed in training he might up his game. Finally, soccer finishing 101, hit the far post for f--ks sake. Demonstration below. Showing my age. Hit mute on the terrible music (what is it with soccer highlights and terrible music).

3 years ... hmmm ... would have preferred 2 years given his tendency to get injured. What wage is El Khaddouri on now ? Overall, I'd be happy to still have him in the squad. As his lover boy @paokarag4 always like to remind us, he is *very* good technically and has much to offer if used correctly.

Hopefully it’s just the media making fables. I loved Prijovic - he was the first real striker we had in years. A dereki that could finish and was hungry for goals. Simple yes, but effective and he created a lot of space for those around him. He was also solid in the air. Defences feared him as they should. If I believed he was as good now as then I would have him back, but I don’t believe that. He has had a poor season in the Arab League where by rights he should be smashing in goals. That is problem number one. Problem number two is his very high wages. Problem number three is his age - 31. I would not take the risk. Better to try and find a new striker. If by some chance he was willing to come cheap (which I can’t see happening and why should he) I would have him in the squad and if he comes good that’s great and if not we’d have other options. But that isn’t a realistic scenario. Having said that I think I gave a similar spiel about signing Vieirinha some years back and how that was a bad idea, so what the hell do I know.

I can't see Lucescu relying on the old guard as part of a serious 3 year plan. They are literally too old to be with us in 3 years from now. They will all need to be replaced but this doesn't mean it has to happen right away. You can still get another season out of them. I don't really care what transfers we do so long as they are good transfers. Tired of signings expensive duds or cheap youngsters that are nowhere near ready for first team football. When Matos, Crespo, Varela, Shakhov, Canas, Biseswar, Prijovic were all signed, they were clearly an upgrade and ready to lift the team. These are the sort of transfers - quality wise - we need. First things first, Lucescu needs to assess the squad, cull or keep as he sees fit and importantly decide on a formation with european qualifiers in mind. It's all well and good to want to revert back to a 4-2-3-1 but the fact is we don't have the quality of wingers and forwards we did and we leaked lots of goals this season.