Jump to content
Phantis Forums

PAE PAOK General News


Blackhawk

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 99
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

the parallels between PAOK and Newcastle are uncanny.

 

President who has cleared the debt........ check

Failure to make any signings during the summer transfer period or even longer......... check

Panic scattergun buying during the winter transfer period....... check

 

The only difference is that most of the other superleague clubs are even more poorly managed and we get away with it, it's toughter in the premier league and Newcastle were at serious risk.

 

Between PAOK, Newcastle and Collingwood it's been a s%$#! year to watch football.

  • Like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

PAOK's modus operandi needs to change.

 

To his credit, Savvidis has paid the debt (massive achievement) and pays the players on time (also a massive achievement for PAOK).  But on the football pitch, we've gone nowhere or backwards.

 

Hopefully this new TD can give the club some direction because we definitely need it.

 

Our usual approach each year is to try to sign some decent quality players.  Of course, if they are decent quality why would they want to come to PAOK ?  So, as the transfer deadline approaches, we lower our standards, and then in the end I think we just make signings for the sake of it.  Or, we do the classic PAOK and sign a player from a team we played who happened to have a good game.  My hope is that the new TD can actually judge the worth of a player ... which is always subjective ... and can actually try and build a team that is structured.

 

During the Savvidis era, we've had 3 managers (Donis, Stefens and Anastasiadis) who have all failed and been given the boot early.  That's problem number one to fix.

 

Problem number two is to stop with all the mediocre transfers, but I'm not optimistic we can do that.  We seem to just transfer players for the sake of it, even though they aren't a significant improvement on what we already have.

 

If you look at our signings in the last 3 years we have :-

 

2012/2013

-------------

Vukic - super sub.  Would have loved to have had this guy in his prime.

Katsouranis, Schildenfeld, Lawrence - "decent" signings.  They weren't terrible most of the time.

Jacobo, Itandje - why bother ?  Not good enough.

Camara, Oliseh, Khumalo, Vivian - lol.

 

2013/2014

-------------

Stoch, Insuarralde, Natcho - all decent players but why bother ?

Lucas - good signing.  We finally have a good signing and he's 26 years old, and he doesn't want to play for us, and he's doing well in La Liga.  Sigh.

Skondras - good signing.

Vitor - good signing.

Tzavellas, Tziolis - seemed like a good at the time.

Maduro, Martens, Spyropoulos, Lopez, Ninis, Necid, Hoesen - lol.

 

2014/2015

-------------

Mak, Rat, Pereyra - good signings.

Golasa - still young.

Noboa, Costa - time will tell.

 

So, that's it.  We have about 5 good signings in the last 3 years.  All the rest were either fails or players on loan that would've left anyway.

 

We need to do better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the parallels between PAOK and Newcastle are uncanny.

 

President who has cleared the debt........ check

Failure to make any signings during the summer transfer period or even longer......... check

Panic scattergun buying during the winter transfer period....... check

 

The only difference is that most of the other superleague clubs are even more poorly managed and we get away with it, it's toughter in the premier league and Newcastle were at serious risk.

 

Between PAOK, Newcastle and Collingwood it's been a s%$#! year to watch football.

Between PAOK, Newcastle and Collingwood it's been a s%$#! year to watch football. make that Carlton for me mate and you can see what a year it has been

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't know if I should put this in this thread or the transfers thread, but I thought as it encompasses more than just transfer policy it should go in here.

 

Here in Australia, despite being quite an insanely dedicated nation of sports consumers we only have to my knowledge one sports radio station and as such it differs a bit from what you get in Greece and the US, it regularly gets quite serious about issues like team building, general men's health and the science and psychology behind sport.

 

Late last year there was an extensive interview with a former Wallaby [Australian rugby representative] who had undertaken a 2 year research study into team building. By team building I don't mean bonding between team mates and whether or not they are going to punch on in the changing rooms after a game but the composition of your playing staff and list management. Specifically what they found was that the best results were derived by those teams who made minimal changes to their playing staff at any one time.

 

One of the examples they cited was the NFL where team lists are blown up and turned over at a huge rate and that not surprisingly the number of playoff teams can change from one season to the next by up to 50%, yet the teams who keep as much of their core intact from season to season [New England, Seattle, Denver] remain perennial playoff teams while others who go about hoovering up boatloads of free agents and look great on paper wallow on the periphery.

 

The other examples they used were Manchester United under Sir Alex and the current Barcelona setup which would only buy one or two players per season but ones that were a direct and obvious upgrade on what they had or replacing a retiree.

 

That's why I personally think blowing up the team and filling it with a bunch of mercenaries will lead to disaster. Obviously we aren't going to get a series of superstars in during one transfer window, but what we can do is buy 3 decent players this summer who are demonstrably better than what we have to be supplemented by the guys already there. I'm thinking a left back, a defensive midfielder and a left winger as first priority. Eventually inside 3 transfer windows you would have overhauled almost your entire starting XI with the aim being that our current first XI becomes our second XI unless they lift their game to outperform the new blood.

 

This however would only work if we could hire a manager/coach that we stick with. It's no surprise that our most consistent era was under Santos because he was given time and the players new that he wans't going anywhere in a hurry.

 

Apologies for the long post.

  • Like it 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First interview with Arnesen.

 

 

-edit- One note about the interview, he says that he feels he's coming in a little late in the process of preparing for this transfer window. By the standards of our club, he's about 4 months early, so this might be a good sign.

Edited by pash
  • Like it 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One note about the interview, he says that he feels he's coming in a little late in the process of preparing for this transfer window. By the standards of our club, he's about 4 months early, so this might be a good sign.

 

He sounds like a team player, but I hope he doesn't take too many pointers (at least on the sports side) from ... Savvidis, etc. If he is allowed to do his job (which Blackhawk alluded to in the thread he made for our new TD) then things will be better, but I feel like that's a big if. I think he is also in for massive culture shock.

 

Either this or he will be the catalyst that transforms our club's business culture from the inside out with a little Nordic efficiency.

 

I think the first one is more likely but I am hoping for the second one. I do not care for instant results (which I think Savvidis has been foolishly pursuing at times) but can we at least get our s%$#! together and not look like amateur hour?

  • Like it 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great interview.  Savvidis seems to be doing the right things in the back office so we can't really ask for more.  He's paid off the debt, brought in Jack Angel and now we have our own Viking TD.  If we can get a good manager as well, things could be looking up for real.

  • Like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be happy with a team that has energy, cohesion and can actually string 5 passes together.  We always look so random.

 

Lately every time we turn a couple of decent passes into our normal shambles I remember the away match at Tottenham and think 'it can't be that hard to do it against teams like Kalloni can it' and then proceed to throw my mouse across the room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The first thing that needs to be taken care of is hiring a new coach. According to latest rumors PAOK is linked to Argentinian Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who in the past has coached Boca Juniors, Columbus Crew and Gimnaasia La Plata. He is quite young (42 years), which I believe is what PAOK needs, but what worries me is the fact that he has no European experience. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The faster the better. Was going to note that he wasn't the coach of those teams too, but I know almost nothing else about him.

 

My only hope as far as players go, is that we don't completely disregard any homegrown talent. I would absolutely hate for us to field a team of 10 mercenaries + a Greek goalie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once again PAOK will go to Doorwerth in the Netherlands to prepare for the new season.

 

I do not know exactly when but I hope to see some friendly matches before leaving for my holidays to Greece.

  • Like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Blackhawk changed the title to PAE PAOK General News

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...