Leaderboard

Hey! Some of you might remember me as me, most of you probably don't. Anyway, I was in Greece the other day and managed to have a really rushed walk around the stadium and take some photos of the graffiti. They're not great, but some of you may enjoy one or two. So here: https://imgur.com/a/VomVn Glad to see we've found another home... again. I hope those of you who are cool are still cool.

Cocksta... Actually... yes I do... Why do think no one else wanted him... Essien is still a pretty big name for any decent European league... yes he's 32 but its still a relatively decent/good pickup on a mid table Italian/German/Spanish He should have still gotten offers from them... instead he got offers from us and the MLS.... and the MLS never really followed up with their offer, so the only real offer he had was from us When we had 2000 people show up at the airport to greet the guy...flying in on a pvt jet... without him putting pen to paper.... ITS EXTREMELY HARD TO TURN THE GUY AWAY The guy was signed once he stepped foot out of the plane... The fans had made there stance known.. and there was absolutely NO WAY you could say "no" to him now.... All this talk about "physicals" was just 'talk" as a "breakdown of talks due to failing to pass a physical" would have caused MAJOR BACKLASH from the fans... harmed panathinaiki symmaxia and harmed our ticket sales... Everyone would have though that Alafouzo changed the deal on him or whatever... even if the real reason was a failed physical Bottom line... we just have to make the best out of it... We had the luxury of saying "no" to Alafaro b/c no one knew who he was... he was a nobody that had a decent youtube profile... big deal You coudln't say "no" to Essien when he is the last "big name" player in 5 years that we brought to the team We got suckered into this one boys.... Bad business.... At 32 with these abdominal issues and surgery... and a guy who uses tenacity to establish his game... the omens do NOT bode well for this signing....... What i hate the most... is not so much that we signed Essien... but that we spent the money that we could have used for other players that would have made a known impact... Like Abeid....

Hypocrisy. I can guarantee you if and when the day comes that Germany's economy enters recession, they will not apply the same "methods" to their own economy as they did to Greece. jvc, I get what you are saying about Greece paying its debt, but there are times when debts just aren't payed back in full. And this is a text book case of that. Just because an agreement has been made (think Versailles), doesn't make it just or sustainable. I'm just waiting for the laughable hype that will come out in maybe 6 or 12 months from now when the media will report "Greek economy grows by 1.2%" or something like that. It's not so hard to grow by 1.2% when you're GDP has fallen by 30%. What people aren't getting is how bad the technocrats at the EU are at their job. They have little understanding of macro-economics and don't really care when this is pointed out. Just think ... how badly has Greece been run in the last 40 years or so ? Really bad yeah! Little understanding of how to create a modern economy. Greatly reliant on tourism. Little to no serious export industry. Heavily reliant on imports. Bureaucracy laughable. Regulation laughable. Taxation laughable. And yet I tell you compared to the EU technocrats, the people that ran Greece were competent. As bad as Greece has been, they never managed to destroy the economy to depression levels in such a short time. There is a big misconception that this is all of Greece's fault. Definitely up until 2008 it was. But since then, the Troika's remedies have managed to put Greece into an economic spiral and it's still going. I await to see where it will finish. There seem to be a lot of posters on this forum that have faith in EU technocrats fixing Greece's economy. I am not one of them. I don't think they know how to fix it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=WhGsh33d8bk Through satire, Seth Myers paints a fair picture of the situation...

Nationalize Benfica

Pana97, great idea creating a starting 11 with posters on this board. It has exposed the Greek side of many people within this forum. By creating a new team we automatically have seen arguments, klikes and vendettas, just like the Ethniki. Brilliant! As for myself, thanks for putting me in at CB however I see myself more like Ninis. Good vision and passing, cant be bothered running, slow as hell. I also lose form the moment I am exposed to nightlife, women and booze. And again, just like Ninis, I should be coming off the bench.

I don't think you have the 30 meter pass any more to find me up top ! Old men can't play !! Jvc you are in, replacing asteras, boy!

I am to old to play defensive midfield,my legs cant handle the work load ,plus I was always a center back,so that is where I want to play,but im telling you this ,I will not be passing the ball to accor6. jvc your to young to start in this line up.

What I will say is

There's a main site?

So my input on the Essien operation.... Well to be honest... they aren't really giving me much info to work with... All they are saying is an abdominal surgery (most likey in the abdominal rectus)... Now typically... abdominal surgeries are pretty low risk and most people (general people like you and me) can be back on their feet and back to normal within a week or less... Essien isn't a typical person like you and me... he's an athlete that requires the use of his abdominal muscles MUCH MUCH MUCH more than people like me and you who require them at a much less strenuous capacity... For athletes, the "healing" time usually takes a bit longer... 2-3 weeks at least... and the problem with abdominal surgeries is that you typically reinjure the area VERY frequently b/c your CONSTANTLY using the muscle and not letting it rest/heal fully... your using them to walk, run, sit up, bend over, lean, kick, jump, cough, s%$#!... your almost constantly using your rectus muscles for everything So I agree he should be "healed" from that in about a month... however, he will need to start "training camp" all over... since his fitness will be 0... so tack on about another 3 weeks... another 2 weeks to assimilate into the team... we wont' be seeing Essien till end of August-early September This could all change, b/c I dont have all the neccesary info to know what exactly essien is getting done.... however, thats a pretty decent general description of what could happen

Atleast our kids are giving us something to be proud of great result, keep it going!!! Would be great if they could win it on home soil to give our people something to cheer about!!!