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PAOK in Europe 2017-2018


italosPAOK4

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Of course it will be better for our team in terms of physical condition. Last year AEK had no Europe and it appeared in the best condition for the play offs. Let's see what their mediocre squad will do by having 6 extra European games. Even though our elimination might help us for the League, I still believe that the two eliminations from Rapid Wien and Ostersud along with the OAKA Greek Cup Final against Panathinaikos are the most shameful moments of the last few years.

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@jvc, stop talking about Olympiakos.  They are in the stratosphere and we are rolling around in the dirt.  They collect 20+ million most seasons from the CL.  They sell players for 10 million that we would struggle to sell for 1/4 of that.  We get on a roll of 3 wins and think we are something special.  Seriously, we are comparing an F1 to a Zastava.

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I'm coming round to thinking that we will be in this championship race all the way with Olympiakos this year. The embarrassment of the Europa League exit (as well as having less fixture congestion) may actually helps us in the league this year. Our squad is pretty settled and experienced and with the acquisitions we've made post the EL loss it tells me that we're not willing to waste the season.

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Ideally, we'll manage to win all of these remaining five home matches (in the league)...if the team shows up improved, the fans will notice and hopefully start showing up (including after the derbies). The next month or two will make the picture much clearer. But with that said, there's no reason we can't win - we'll be a bit leaner than last season, but I don't see our team being any worse, at least potential-wise.

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2 hours ago, jvc said:

^^Yes I agree....basically the 3 loser clubs fight for the right to be second best every season.   The last 2 seasons I pack it in after 3 games and watch something else much better on Sundays,  the NFL.  This year I'm done after 2 games....will check in now and then to see our clown popcorn stand clubs performance.  Lol

Excellent, then how about you also stay out of here with your constant whinging. We've got that covered ourselves, no need for you to try and PAOsplain it to us

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11 hours ago, kozi said:

I'm coming round to thinking that we will be in this championship race all the way with Olympiakos this year. The embarrassment of the Europa League exit (as well as having less fixture congestion) may actually helps us in the league this year. Our squad is pretty settled and experienced and with the acquisitions we've made post the EL loss it tells me that we're not willing to waste the season.

Is this an imposter ?  The kozi I know is not normally this positive!

Regarding the team I think it all comes down to two factors.  Firstly, the quality of the two midfield signings El Khadouri and Mauricio.  If these two guys really are a step up from what we have, then we may actually have a proper midfield.  Too often our team looks like it has defence and forwards with nothing in the middle.  The second issue is quality/depth of our defence, which I believe is insufficient.  Our first line of defence of Matos, Varela, Crespo, Leovac is good enough for the GSL, but the back up players I'm not so sure.

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2 hours ago, Yiankos said:

I would argue that Matos and Varela are good enough. Leovac and Crespo are average at best.

Agreed...Ideally both should be squad players... Levek if he's fit should cover LB... But it's the CB position we really need a signing but with the deadline looming it doesn't look like it's happening.

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5 hours ago, Bananas said:

Is this an imposter ?  The kozi I know is not normally this positive!

@Bananas hehe...too many years of frustration...I just think this year is a golden opportunity for us... The oly I've seen play so far this year is the weakest oly I've seen for many years, why not, I think we can do it. With us it's as much about the psychology as the talent. Something tells me the boys are on a mission for the title. 

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6 hours ago, kozi said:

@Bananas hehe...too many years of frustration...I just think this year is a golden opportunity for us... The oly I've seen play so far this year is the weakest oly I've seen for many years, why not, I think we can do it. With us it's as much about the psychology as the talent. Something tells me the boys are on a mission for the title. 

I have become a Zen Master because of the many years of frustration.  I agree we have an opportunity this year.  The squad has the talent.  Not sure if they have the drive.

Ultimately, at least in my mind, it comes down to the manager.  What we need is a manager that can get the best out of the players.  I believe that deep down (and the players would never admit this of course) a lot of the players in our squad just accept defeat too easily.  If Lucescu can somehow change this mind set, we are a chance.

The truth is we haven't had a good manager in a long time.  Santos was good.  Very good actually.  And I really liked Boloni.  But in the Savvidis era the best we've had is Ivic and that's saying something as his only experience was as an U20's coach.  But what he lacked in tactics and experience he made up for with good man management of the squad.  Still though, Ivic wasn't really ready for PAOK.  In an ideal world Ivic should've been an Assistant for a couple more years before stepping up.

Even Lucescu is an unknown quantity.  He's proven he can work well with a small team and make them competitive and hard to beat.  But it's a whole other thing to be at PAOK.  Does he know how to set up a team when you're expected to win ?  Will the players listen to him ?  Or will they just nod their heads and think "A re vlaka, I make 4 times more money than you and I'm going to screw my beautiful girl tonight".  We will see.

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What you are saying about the coach is very important. Let's hope Savvidis will stop his weird moves and the next "big" move will be a coach that will be a big enough name, with experience, and he will be supported with good players. With those last signings the team seems to be quite good. I am very sad that we are not playing in Europe this year, but if this had to be done in order for Savvidis to decide to put some real money and bring players where exactly we need them, then I accept it.

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On 29/08/2017 at 10:34 PM, jvc said:

I don't see how missing out on 8 million from Europe is a blessing....also not having player exposure is a hudge negative.  At the end of the day.....players come to the big clubs in Greece so they can get European exposure,  playing in the SUPA league is not on their bucket list of things to do.  That being said,  Olympiakos will get stronger because of the CL money....if PAOK was a mile behind the champions, now they're miles behind and falling further.   There's no positive or blessings out of this,  you also allowed AEK to permanently be Olympiakos main competitor.  

Looks like your post was off the point. Savvidis is not i need of the european monies aek and pao need and it was a blessing for us with the signings we made!! Now we can focus on winning the league! 

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Let's wait and see what AEK can do when they will be having 6 extra European matches while PAOK is resting. Because so far was the other way around...

Olympiakos is again the most expensive team budget-wise, but why you are putting AEK as the challenger of the title? I am pretty sure AEK has a lower budget than PAOK. And PAOK just had four big signings. Let's wait and see in what shape our teams will be in a couple of months when there will be a fair amount of games already played. If those last signings play to their potential, I don't think AEK will be a problem for PAOK.

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Some points for you JVC to point out you have NFI 

1) aek has half the budget of PAOK 

2) the 2 highest salaries in Greece belong 1 each to Olympiacos and PAOK and im waiting to hear final numbers as the budgets of the gayros and paok dont seem to be to far away from each other. Within 10%. 

3) now club brugge is our of Europe will this affect their transfer prospects or will the wages they offer their targets be the real indicator? 

 

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