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PAOK FC Head Coach (Razvan Lucescu)


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I know Ivic has still got a long way to become a complete manager but overall I thought he's done a decent job.  I'd give him a C+.  Not including the play-offs the second half of the season we were very good.  We got the Cup, our first trophy in 14 years.  I can't really say what happened in the play-offs but if Ivic's excuse is fatigue, that is a poor excuse as we have the strongest roster out of the teams in the play-offs.

What I particularly like about Ivic is that he's played and lived in Greece for years.  He understands the football in Greece and he's a PAOK boy which I believe is always a plus.  If we bring in a foreigner, how will he cope ?  Will he freak out when he realizes the the GSL is a b-o-u-r-d-e-l-o ?  That is my bigger concern.  Not the fact that there aren't better managers out there, but how can we get them to come to Greece and stay for the long haul.  There is also the issue of when a new manager comes in they want to bring in 10 new players.  Hopefully we don't have to go through that yet again.

Anyway, let's see what happens.  I am not super enthused about keeping Ivic because he's made quite the mistakes this season but will the alternative be any better ?  At least with Ivic we can assume (or am I being silly) that he would at least get better and mature with time.

Edited by Bananas
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I mean, it really sounds like he's given up and is on his way out regardless of what we think about him, right? I do think, though, that he'll only get better. With the team we have, his ending record is a bit disappointing, but even that was nearly enough to win the championship. It's also possible everything he says is cover for that oft-rumored big money move to China. I wouldn't blame him if he did chase the cash.

 

Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
PAOK 9 March 2016 Present 69 41 12 16 112 49 +63 59.42
Total 69 41 12 16 112 49 +63 59.42

 

Surely there's a manager out there who will shrug off the stupidity he sees in Greece on a daily basis? Maybe we should hire one of PanathinAEKos' managers ;)

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There must be something else going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.  It just doesn't make any sense.  From the second half of the season the team was quite stable and playing very good football.  Sure there was the occasional game here or there but overall the best half season in a long time.  Then we win the Cup.  Everything is going just dandy.  And now this ?  Cool, yeah, we were bad in the play-offs but I don't see how that would be enough to sack Ivic.  If that is our criteria, then we will be sacking coaches every year, which come to think of it, we do! :)

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35 minutes ago, kozi said:

The guy didn't meet his target. Good to see the back of him.

Oh, I know you're happy ha ha.  I just don't know what savoura we're going to get now.  Are you thinking we can't get any worse ?  I assure you at PAOK they specialize in running around in circles.  Anyway, let's see what happens.  I was complaining a while back that I just wanted one manager to last an entire season.  Was that too much to ask ?!?!  And now my wish was granted.  Hats off to the first manager in the 5 year Savvidis era to last from the pre-season to the end of the season.

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Will be really disappointing to see him go. Anyone thinking we will win the league with a new coach in place is mistaken. The merry go round will continue and we will once again fail to move forward. To be fair to the club, reports are saying that Ivic is the one who wants to leave rather than us sacking him, which at least shows half a step in the right direction. 

Never the less if this does happen it will severely damage this groups chances of achieving anything significant, if they even remain together because as mentioned earlier a new coach will have players that he'll want to bring in

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2 hours ago, kozi said:

The guy didn't meet his target. Good to see the back of him.

You're crazy, Ivic was the best coach I think this year. I will never understand how Greek clubs expect to build a serious squad when the coaches never last more than a season on average. It is so frustrating as a fan of my own team to see the team start from scratch almost every summer. You don't build a serious team this way, it is impossible.

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1 hour ago, paokarag4 said:

Will be really disappointing to see him go. Anyone thinking we will win the league with a new coach in place is mistaken. The merry go round will continue and we will once again fail to move forward. To be fair to the club, reports are saying that Ivic is the one who wants to leave rather than us sacking him, which at least shows half a step in the right direction. 

Never the less if this does happen it will severely damage this groups chances of achieving anything significant, if they even remain together because as mentioned earlier a new coach will have players that he'll want to bring in

So long as we keep the core 16 or so players we'll be all right.  I'd like to see Ivic stay if only to see what the team can achieve.  Really, if you look at it objectively, the team has gotten stronger and stronger overall.  Sure there's been dips but overall the team is heading in the right direction.  If we do end up getting a new coach and there is a clear out of the squad, then we're just running on the spot.

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Ivic's only success was the cup.

The SL ended to be a big disappointment. Good run the whole season, but in the play offs he lost twice both from Panathinaikos and AEK. Plus those pretty awful losses at OAKA (3-0) and Leoforo (1-0) earlier this year.

His biggest achievement for me was the amazing job that they did with the muscle injuries the whole year. A huge bravo for that.

On the other hand, he could do a little better with the squad. I mean with players as Kace, Charisi, even Facundo Pereyra. I liked the fact that he choose to eliminate Tzavella, Tzioli etc. But, at the play-offs he expected the players that he never believed to get the job done. Including Brkic who was quite awful every time he played.

Certainly the most successful coach in the 5-year Savvidi era where we have seen all the craziest and shittiest choices by a guy who has proven he has no idea about football and who is still struggling to take the correct decisions even after so many years. I mean, we demand from Ivic and from the next Ivic to take the best decisions and show his work in just a few months, but we have an owner who has proven that his football knowledge is dangerous for the club. And his improvement is slight over the years. Let's see what choices he will make for his sixth year. Now, that he is supposed to be in an open war with everyone, he has to build the strongest team ever. And that means to bring a huge coach (for this I would only hope that Michel will pick the one) and buy at least 7-8 top quality players, especially if we consider that at least a couple or more will not be with us next year.

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15 hours ago, Bananas said:

There must be something else going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

I believe that too. And the longer Olympiakos goes without announcing a new coach, I would not be surprised to see him ending in Piraeus. Don't forget Ivic's brother is closely affiliated with Olympiakos.

Personally I think it will be a mistake if we let him go, but if he himself does not want to stay, there is no reason to beg him to stay. Hopefully Michel has already picked a replacement. 

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Apparently all of Ivic's aides were told to pack up their stuff and leave, and that Michel is busy looking for an experienced replacement. Just hope we don't end up with another tourist like Huub Stevens.

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The whole situation is bizarre.  There are rumours Ivic will go to Serbia but that doesn't make sense.  That's not an upgrade.  If I had to guess I think Ivic wasn't happy with the offer after the Cup win (incidentally, what is Ivic's salary ?), and maybe he thought wait till he "wins" the play offs and ask for more.  Maybe now he's found the offer insulting ?  Hard to say, I'm just speculating.

As for the calls of bringing in a quality coach, @BostonThanatos summed it up perfectly.  What coach, at the top of their game, would come to PAOK given our history with coaches ?  The answer -> no one.  The best we can hope for is a coach that was good once upon a time or an up and comer that isn't proven.  I don't think it matters how much we offer in a salary, there is just no good reason for a good manager to come to Greece, at least, not to any team other than Olympiakos.

On a side note, is Xanthi's coach still available ?  Would he be any good ?

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I don't want Lucescu Jr. at PAOK. I'd rather go for his father.

Not sure what Ivic's salary was, but his contract was 1+1 option. There are all kind of rumors why he is leaving and I am afraid we will never know the truth. 

Sure there are better coaches out there than him, but very few will entertain a coaching position in Greece. That's why in the past we ended up with the likes of Donis (going to a bigger team), Stevens (Greece is great for vacation), Anastasiadis (old school), Tudor & Ivic (learning on  the job). 

One of the main reasons why I want Ivic to stay on is that he knows the mentality of Greek soccer. tell me which coach would have milked the beer bottle incident to get a win in the game he was losing. 

Plus he did fairly well his first season. He can only improve in the future.  I am afraid we are looking at another wasted season ahead if we don't make a good choice.

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Sport24 reporting that Michel has a list of 50 names he's going through for coach. That's an improbably high number. Supposedly, they want someone who has an offensive focus.

In a separate article, they note these two names, both of whom will be off contract this summer:

Thomas Christiansen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Christiansen - just finished a one-year stint at APOEL (coached AEK Larnaca for two years before that). A 44 year-old former stiker, Danish. Likely would be comfortable coaching in Greece. No trophies won yet.

Serhiy Rebrov - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serhiy_Rebrov - been the coach of Dynamo Kiev since 2014. A 42-year-old former striker, Ukranian. Judging by Michel's past transfer decisions, I would not be surprised if this guy is the frontrunner. Looks to have the more impressive resume, both in terms of teams coached and as a player. As manager, won their league twice and two cups (in addition to their Super Cup, which seems like a very minor trophy).

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It appears we are looking at coaching soap opera at PAOK. Media speculates that Ivic is history, but official announcements are being postponed daily. In the meantime Michel and ivic have been meeting for the last couple days. It looks to me that the always "trustworthy" PAOK reporters have no clue what is really happening.

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They probably just want to buy time before they name a replacement. Or Ivic is vacillating on his choice. The Greek media not knowing what's going on is just par for the course.

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The whole situation is strange.

I thought Ivic was a lock down for next season given we won the Cup.  Sure the play offs went badly but when you look at the entire season as a whole, it was successful.

On the plus side of the ledger :-

- we won the Cup.  Our first trophy in years.

- seem to have fixed the issue with the injuries.  Remember those ?

- seem to have fixed our defensive frailties at set pieces.  Remember those ?

- cleaned out a lot of the dead wood and trouble makers.

- built a solid core of say 15 or say players.  A real core for the first time in forever.

- had a good run in the second half of the season.

- overall are playing fairly decent football.

- managed to score 52 goals in the league (5 less than Olympiakos) with only one real striker who played only a handful of games and minutes.

- Ivic understands Greek football.  This should not be underestimated.

On the minus side of the ledger :-

-  the team did start poorly, but what do we expect ?  It was a new inexperienced coach with lots of new players and no core to begin with.

- Ivic at times lacks tactical ... sophistication.  Again, what do we expect.  He's new and will learn.  The naive mistakes he makes today hopefully won't be repeated tomorrow.

- the play offs went badly.

 

So I can't see how the club could be unhappy with Ivic.  I can only guess that it's Ivic that has grievances with the club.  Maybe he was expecting a certain salary after the Cup win and then post play offs that had been reduced and he's angry about it.  Nothing else makes sense.

 

As far as risk goes, Ivic is definitely the less risky option compared to getting a new coach.  Sorry, I know this has been said 1000 times but a good proven coach is NOT coming to PAOK.  Not given our history of firing coaches every season.  If we get a new coach it could be the same crap all over again.  Why risk it ?  Stick with Ivic and let's see where it takes us.  I think after another full season (my god, I can't believe I'm even thinking of PAOK sticking with a coach for 2 years!!!) then we can reassess.

Edited by Bananas
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3 hours ago, pash said:

The above presupposes that Ivic is being let go, but I think it's very much the opposite.

Not so.

4 hours ago, Bananas said:

So I can't see how the club could be unhappy with Ivic.  I can only guess that it's Ivic that has grievances with the club.  Maybe he was expecting a certain salary after the Cup win and then post play offs that had been reduced and he's angry about it.  Nothing else makes sense.

I'm reading just an hour ago that Ivic has offers from a Turkish club and that he presented them to the club.  It appears our club was unwilling to match the offer.  Again, it's all speculation but this at least adds up.

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  • Blackhawk changed the title to PAOK FC Head Coach (?)
  • Blackhawk changed the title to PAOK FC Head Coach (Razvan Lucescu)

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