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SL1-PO-R7: PAOK - Panathinaikos (08-Jul-20, 21:00 EEST)


Blackhawk

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It's crazy how bad the team is at the moment.  I'm sure management is regretting Abel's salary, it's the only thing stopping him from being fired.  As for CL, forget it, and the way the team is currently, what's the point anyway.  We'll struggle through EL qualifiers as it is if something doesn't change and quick.  Management will either have to risk (and pray) Abel "works it out" or bite the bullet and pay him out.

When you see a team playing this way, they've pretty much lost faith in the manager.  They'll nod their head and do enough to not get benched but inside the head they're thinking "mate, you have no idea".

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I think there is more to this than the coaching of Abel Ferreira.

In my opinion, the whole PAOK/Xanthi fake issue created by the fat pig/ND government and their goal to relegate PAOK and chase Ivan out of the country had a major part in our current situation. Taking the player's side for example. Once the relegation talks started I am pretty sure the various agents had talks with their players concerning their future on the team. I am sure some of them already made plans about their future, and are making sure not to get injured in order not to jeopardize those plans.

The other thing that stands out is the lack of response by the front office. It's like they threw in the towel.

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5 hours ago, Blackhawk said:

I think there is more to this than the coaching of Abel Ferreira.

In my opinion, the whole PAOK/Xanthi fake issue created by the fat pig/ND government and their goal to relegate PAOK and chase Ivan out of the country had a major part in our current situation. Taking the player's side for example. Once the relegation talks started I am pretty sure the various agents had talks with their players concerning their future on the team. I am sure some of them already made plans about their future, and are making sure not to get injured in order not to jeopardize those plans.

The other thing that stands out is the lack of response by the front office. It's like they threw in the towel.

Maybe so.  Who knows how the players think.  To be fair, if I was a decent player with no allegiance to PAOK the episode would make me think "one day when I'm out of here and playing in a normal league I won't have to put up with this crap".  It must be disheartening.

Side note, the roster is due for a clean out and shake up on many levels.

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Agreed. The team gambled that they could move up to that next step where the winnings from international games would cover the salaries, and lost. There were a few missteps there - Stanojevic, not figuring out the Lucescu situation earlier, perhaps even the Ivic one before that - but now this season has been a borderline disaster. Might still end up one.

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There have been mistakes made for a few years now with regards to managers. Anastasiadis got the boot instead of Tzavellas. Ivic then left instead of being kept. Stanojevic was a fiasco that reminded me of Beretta. Unfortunately George doesn't have great knowledge with regards to football. Bringing in players like Berbatov (then not even using him to teach younger players), bringing back Stoch,  getting rid of Papagiannopoulos - all these prove he doesn't really have a clue.

Clearly we would have never won the double without Ivan but it is time to leave the instagram account to one side and start doing the job properly.

I don't think Abel's appointment was a bad decision (it is always easy to judge in hindsight). Even though this season was a disaster I still think he should be given a transfer window and at least half a season to show what he can do. You can't keep changing managers just because some players don't like him. This summer needs to be a massive clear out with Abel having autonomy on who comes in.

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I think it'll be a bad transfer window. Why, you ask? Because every rumor is that we're going all-in with the youth players. If that's the case, then there is no way Ferreira is going to get the players *he* wants in there. Expect to see many more problems if the rumors are true.

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They just need to find a decent DM and the team will start playing 5x better.  We're lacking up front but I believe that’s a confidence thing.  If they can sort out the middle things will improve.  We went from having Mauricio in stellar form coupled with Oliveira to having only Misic this season.  Esiti and Augusto are lacking.  Better to have kept Canas and Shakhov than these two.  Who even knows what will happen with Misic.

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I actually think it's the box-to-box midfielder they're missing. Esiti has had some pretty impressive games (and I'm glad we'll be seeing him in the next one). If his partner were someone at Oliveira's level, it would make me feel a *lot* better. El Kaddouri and Mauricio are NOT at that level. Misic could be, but obviously we can't count on him right now.

I do agree that Augusto has added nothing. Shakhov was much, much better.

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I was thinking Misic is our box to box, but yes, he's a level below Oliveira, or different rather.  And now that he's injured it's moot anyhow.  Other than him, that leaves Mauricio, who has checked out now mentally.

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