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Shoretire will be our savior

He was never going to stay with us forever. This has been inevitable for a long time. the problem is, after this move goes through, we would have made over 60+ million in transfer revenue in the past 2 years, but can’t shake our “smartest in the room” mentality, thinking we can just look in the bargain bins to find quality players. We never have a plan, nothing is ever calculated. On a side note, I will be in Germany in a couple of days, and will be attending Dortmund vs Bayern Munich. I will definitely be picking up a Konstantelias Dortmund jersey as a souvenir.

Jeremejeff did not care. He already knew he was leaving the team.

Delias wasn't "made" by our academy. You can't make players like that. He's in the mould of Hatzipanayis, Karapialis, those style of players. The things he's done, we may not see again for a long time, if ever. If the kid left of his own accord I'm ok with it, but still sad. If he was pushed out, I don't know what to say. As for our academy, it has only really produced 2 top class players that actually made a difference in the first team, Delias and Koulierakis. All the rest left early and didn't have time to make an impact. If we're happy to be an Ajax (020?) and produce players and then sell them off, so be it, but I'd have liked a few more seasons with them all in the first team. And as for the timing, it's terrible. The club should have a policy of no sales before the qualifying matches of Europe are completed. If we lose to Brann, we're done probably 13-15 million in revenue. That won't make the sale look too good. Why take the risk? Interesting times ahead.

@paokarag4 @Bananas I agree with a lot of what you're saying, particularly that the timing is terrible and that losing Konstantelias creates a massive hole in the team. Where I disagree is the idea that he is “not replaceable” or that his value to PAOK is somehow €50m. Every player is replaceable. The question is how difficult and expensive it is to replace them. Konstantelias is obviously very difficult to replace because he's a top-level Greek attacking player, young, homegrown and already proven at PAOK. But that doesn't mean you can put an arbitrary €50m value on him. Ultimately, the market determines his transfer value. If €30m was genuinely well below his market value, why wasn't there a bigger club willing to pay substantially more? Dortmund obviously see enormous potential in him, but they were the club willing to actually put the money on the table. We can't simultaneously say the market undervalued him and ignore the fact that nobody else offered PAOK €40m, €50m etc. And I don't really buy the “Koudas and Konstantelias, once in 100 years” argument either. That's impossible to know. Koudas is a PAOK legend and his longevity and importance to the club are inomparable at this point - he played ~600 games for PAOK. Whether Konstantelias was to reach Koudas level is impossible to know given he was always going to leave at some point as a youngster in today's football world. He's an exceptionally talented player, but we're projecting what he might become. Where I completely agree is that the timing is awful. If you're going to sell your best player, you need to have a plan for replacing his production before you let him go. Selling him this late, when the squad already has obvious weaknesses and European qualification is hanging in the balance, is the part I have the biggest problem with. That's my issue with the transfer — not that PAOK accepted €30m instead of €50m. My concern is now what PAOK does with the €30m. If we spend properly and strengthen 2-3 positions, then the sale can make sense. If we sell Konstantelias and then replace him with cheaper/lesser players, that's when I'd have a serious problem with the management. And honestly, I'd much rather have PAOK develop another Konstantelias than spend €30-40m trying to find another one.

@paokarag4 I completely agree with you. I think it's crazy the club sold Delias. When you sell a player you should always be thinking how can I replace him and how much will it cost? If it's for say a player like Camara, there are lots of players of this type. You'll find one. But Delias is as you say a once in a generation. You won't find a player like him. And even if by some miracle we do, we probably can't afford him. Further to that, we currently rely on him heavily in attack. I would say almost exclusively. Maybe the manager will change things up to compensate - I don't know. I don't see where our goals are going to come from now. If we had a solid defence and were happy to win a bunch of games 1:0 I wouldn't be that concerned, but we concede goals easily. I can't understand why our American friends are so excited by the sale. 30 million! Not much these days. Olympiacos just sold Tzolakis for 24 million - a good keeper, but very very replaceable. Have a look at Panathinakos in the last few years. They have bought a few players in the 6 to 10 million range and for what? They are still not much improved. I think for now the club has to in addition to finding a number 10, but a midfielder who can solidify the middle and protect the defence. The ease with which we concede goals is the biggest problem. The ball gets into our box with ease. Anderlecht ... a fair result. If we played them again, we'd lose again. Conference League is our level at the moment.