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What quality re kozi ? What quality player is going to come to PAOK ? Our options are try and discover a young player and hope some work out e.g. Charisis, Pelkas, Mystakidis, Cimirot. Are any of them quality ? Not really, not in the sense of being game changers. They are squad players. Cimirot is one level above the others. Or you try and get a player who looks all right but for whatever reason in the past, wasn't given a proper shot e.g. Mak, Lucas, Rodrigues. Some work out, others don't. Or you try for a player that is quality but has been unlucky say with injuries e.g. Berg. In our case, we tried with Maduro (peponi head) and Maartens. Again, some work out, others not. Although I am glad I don't have to see Maduro's head anymore. That gave me nightmares. This season ? Only Matos and Canas you could say are quality. They are very good solid players that were a proper upgrade in their respective positions. The rest, pfft, whatever. Maybe Varela will prove me wrong but the rest are just squad players as far as I can tell. Biseswar, entaxi, he's got the skill but he can't run. But the idea of getting a MAD player, fit, primed, good age, injury free, I just don't see it happening. It's not a question of scouting, or money. It's a matter of attracting the player to play in Greece and for PAOK. A real quality player who ticks all the boxes won't come to PAOK if he has offers from elsewhere, and such a player will. I actually think the philosophy under Arnesen was the right way to go. Get young players, relatively cheap, and go from there. Yeah we didn't win the title (were we meant to ?) but it could've been the beginning of something. Instead the fans bayed for blood and got their sacrifice. Anastasiadis the same. He had us first in the league before the slump hit. His reward ? Another sacrifice. Instead of the management saying "Hey, maybe he was onto something. After all, he had the team in first position and title contention for 6 months before the slump. Maybe he just needed a bit more depth. Maybe a better defender or two". But no, another firing. Another round of new players. This is a pattern. It's not healthy. It's not how you create a winning mentality. It's not stable. There is no magic bullet, try as they might in the PAOK administration. The answer is hard work. Good players get to be in the squad the following season. Others that don't perform will be dropped. Those in the middle watch your back. We're bringing in players to compete. You know, if I was a PAOK player right now, I wouldn't be all that worried about my future. Because I know that it's pretty much a certainty that Ivic will be fired before I'm looked at being shipped off to a lower level club. I know that if/when Ivic is fired, I'll just work my ass off for the new manager, so he can see what I'm capable of, and then once things settle, I'll just go easy, 3/4 pace. You get what I'm trying to say ? These players aren't SCARED. They are comfortable. I'm not saying they should be shaking in their boots, but they're too comfortable. If Savvidis came out and said something like "Ivic is the manager for the next 3 years. I don't care if we come 10th. If we lose, I'll ask Ivic who isn't performing. I won't accept anything other than 110% from every player.". Then all of a sudden I'd be thinking, f--k me, I better pull my finger out because then I'd be scared for my position, my future in the squad. You may think Ivic is the wrong man for the job, Regardless, I don't care who we get, but he needs to stay for at least 3 seasons to mould something. Otherwise, it's just restartitis every season.

And then what? Kick them out 2 years later after we decide to hate them again? Been part of these forums for a while and even dating back to the old greeksoccer.com, and year after year it seems to be the same, however with a slight decline. We can narrow it down to Alafouzo, Strammacioni, Zeca or whoever the hell you decide to blame. Fact of the matter is, changing one of the above, will NEVER solve the issue. We can bring in someone with the best expertise and we will still blame them. Look at Man united, they got Mourinho, Pogba and Ibra...they lose to Fenerbahce.... The problem with Panathinaikos, is the problem of Greece and it's super league. Until a heightened sense of professionalism is put within our leagues, then I'm afraid that our beloved Panathinaikos will forever be in the shadows of its former glory. We may have a half decent European run every 4-5 years if we're lucky and at the same time we may win a derby or 2. But besides that, It doesn't look much more promising. Were in a s%$#! place at the moment and it frustrates us all, but blaming one or two people within a club after we've replaced that same position 2000x over the past decade and seen absolute no results, makes me think that there's really no point in wasting our breath over Alafouzo

We should be fine. If we can't win without Manolas then we should not be at the World Cup. We have Sokratis and K.Papadopoulos. They work well together. Also we have Samaris back, plus we have Fortounis and Mitroglou creating goal scoring chances. I also think Manolas is more of a liability than Papadopoulos.

Who is the coach for us ? Whoever he is, he isn't coming to PAOK. All we'll get is over the hill managers like Huub who when the pressure starts will just check out, resign and collect their nice big pay packet. All things considered (just my opinion) our best choice is Ivic. A real manager will want a real transfer budget. Our transfer budget for the previous seasons are :- - 2016/2017 1.4 million. Only paid for Varela. - 2015/2016 we actually spent a bit of money ~7 million. Leovac (1.3m) Cimirot (1.3m) and Charisis (400K) are the only ones that really worked out. Vellidis (750K), Sabo (700K), Olsen (650K), Chatziisaias (550K), Jairo (400K), Korovesis (380K), Antonis (330K) not so much. - 2014/2015 870K. Golasa (450K) and Mak (400K). This is not the sort of budget that will attract a "gun" manager. Add to that the problem of attracting players. I really believe if Savvidis could get a gun striker for say 5 or 7.5 million that he knew would tear up the league, he would do it. But would such a player come to PAOK ? Regarding Qarabag, I think we underestimated them. They are a better side than everyone made them out to be. The team has changed a lot from last season ... just like every season. Matos, Varela, Canas, Shakhov, Campos. Regardless of if we like them or not, they are in the first 11 most weeks. They're still learning to play with each other. The PAOK squad is better in defense. Varela, Malezas and Crespo have strengthened the back line. In the middle we have Canas who is probably the one true DM. Cimirot, Shakhov and Charisis for rotation. All 3 are not quite a true DM or a true CM. But Canas and Shakhov has added to depth. We're still conceding goals (which team doesn't) but not the 3 and 4 we'd cop randomly like previous seasons. The season is still early so they'll probably make me out to be an idiot. It's up front where we are seriously lacking. Our attacks are very predictable. If I was an opposition coach that had scouted PAOK the only player I'd be wary of and make plans to contain is Rodrigues because of his explosive pace/dribbling. All the rest, pfft, nothing to fear. Just wait till Rodrigues gets injured or sold, and we'll be even more impotent in attack. I like Biseswar but with his fitness issues he's unreliable. He's only good as a sub to hopefully change the game. On a side note, I'm probably going to curse him now that I've said it, but Glykos actually seems quite solid this year. If we get a new coach it will all just start all over again like each season. What I'd like to see if for us to stick with Ivic for at least 2 seasons. In the off season pick up a midfielder, winger and forward that are true upgrades on what we have. I'm tired of buying 10 players each season where most of them are essentially just a side grade. The team has issues but there is definitely something there to work with. It's a solid base.

Hy. Bosnian coach Mehmed Baždarević decided to call those players for a match versus Greece: Asmir Begović (Chealsea) Goalkeeper Ibrahim Šehić (Qarabag) Goalkeeper Kenan Pirić (Sloboda Tuzla) Goalkeeper Ognjen Vranješ (Tom Tomsk) Centre back/Right back Ermin Bičakčić (Hoffenheim) Centre back Emir Spahić (Hamburg) Centre back Edin Cocalić (Mechelen) Centre back Toni Šunjić (Stuttgart) Centre back Ervin Zukanović (Atalanta) Centre back/Left back Sead Kolašinac (Schalke) Left back Mato Jajalo (Palermo) Defensive midfielder Gojko Cimirot (PAOK) Defensive midfielder Miralem Pjanić (Juventus) Central midfielder Haris Medunjanin (Maccabi Tel Aviv) Central midfielder Tino Sven Sušić (Genk) Central midfielder Danijel Miličević (Gent) Attacking midfielder Rade Krunić (Empoli) Attacking midfielder Edin Višća (Istanbul BB) Right winger Izet Hajrović (Werder) Winger Senad Lulić (Lazio) Left midfielder Vedad Ibišević (Hertha) Center forward Milan Đurić (Cesena) Center forward Edin Džeko (Roma) Center forward He also announced a "reserve list"(primary in case someone from the orginal squad get injured) : Samir Memišević (Groningen) Centre back Dario Dumić (NEC Nijmegen) Centre back Tomislav Tomić (Zrinjski) Central midfielder Miroslav Stevanović (Željezničar) Right midfielder Haris Duljević (Sarajevo) Winger/Attacking midfielder

I also agree, I don't understand why these players keep getting ignored, they at least should be on the bench as a second option coming off the bench if not starting. We will never get the full potential out of our team until the best players available are consistently on the NT. 3 players that needed to be on the NT whether bench or starting are Fet, ninis and holebas. these players deserved it more then guys like Tziolis, Tsavellas and Bak.. ARGY you made a good point that if our offence is looking stale and not producing then Ninis and fetfa should be a good second option at the very least. Right now we are living and dying with who we start with no bench options. If Skibbe cant see this then he's an idiot.

I wrote a post on the fetfa thread, that, to a certain extent, would apply to Ninis as well. I just don`t see how borderline NT-calibre players like Bakasetas get consistent top-end minutes, but in-form players like Ninis, playing in a statistically better league, who has already produced for Greece and also linked well with Mitroglou in the past, keep getting ignored. Besides, maybe, on a good day, Karelis, we have no one on the bench that can be pugged in to changed the offensive dynamic, if needed. Even if they do not come on and score or directly set up a goal, players like Fetfa and Ninis can change the tempo of the team and sometimes that`s all a formation needs to create chances; especially in the last quarter of the match, and especially this team, who has the tendency to retract. Both Ninis and Fetfa need to be called up sooner than later; hopefully for the Belarus and Bosnia matches next week.

It's definitely time for Ivic to start rotating some more players. As for the love affair with Campos, I don't know what is going on there ? Seriously, where did we find this guy ? I mean someone like Biseswar you can watch for 2 minutes, and you know the guy has a football brain. He may need work on fitness, on motivation, but he knows the game. But Campos ? I really want to proven wrong on him but I haven't seen enough to justify paying him such a high wage. Seriously, if you're a right winger but you can't score goals, there's a name for that. It's called a right back.