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Tell him I say hi please 😞

Form and injuries aside, my starting line up for NT Vlachodimos Retsos Hatzidiakos Manolas Tzimikas Vasilliadis Bouchalakis Limnios Fortounis Fountas Pashalidis (squad) GK: Vlachodimos, Barkas, Dioudis DEF: Manolas, Soc, Siovas, Hatzidiakos, Retsos, Tzimikas, Giannoulis, Kyriakopoulos, Stafylidis MF: Vasilliadis, Bouchalakis, Galanopoulos, Kourbelis, Fortounis, Pelkas F: Limnios, Fountas, Bakasetas, Pashalidis, Masouras Read a really dumb article about Soc on Contra.gr. For me Soc has been one of the best Greek players in the last 10 years and has had a great career at club and NT level. At 32, he still has at least 2-3 good years at the top level and I'm sure he will find a club. I would still include him in a the Greece squad , either as a back up CB or even as a back up RB which he played when he was at Dortmund, and until we find the next Torosides which isn't going to happen any time soon.

It seems like every nt manager we’ve had have played Mantalos as a LW. I don’t know see what they see. We only need one of Fortounis, Pelkas and Mantalos on the pitch. They are all more valuable than our wingers it seems. That’s why we’ve seen 2 out of the 3 if not all in the starting line up over the years. Nobody knows how to control the game better than Fortounis. He should be our starting CAM. Even in our darkest times he was the one that stood out as our best along with Manolas. All the managers we’ve had don’t seem to trust our wingers. Lamprou, Chatzigiovannis, Fetfatzidis and even Masouras. The one number 8 that could potentially be a star for Greece, Vasiliadis, is being ignored even thought Van’t Schip and EPO wanted him and had to go through all the trouble to make him a Greek citizen. Regarding EPO, we don’t know exactly what goes on behind closed doors but you’d have to think that there’s something going on with selections. Sometimes the best players don’t get to play like how is Lampropoulos or Svarnas better than Retsos or Mavropanos?? Retsos is probably someone every Greek should look to in how to progress yourself as a footballer. Retsos has the right mindset and seems the most professional Greek player we have. He even debuted and came back after a long time without game time and performed really well for St Etienne. He even played 3 different positions that game. He can be very useful for us. We’ve had players like Chatzigiovannis and Lamprou have good seasons for their respective teams in the last couple of years and are in my opinion long overdue a call up and opportunity. We are seeing Limnios excel. There’s no reason why they can’t do the same. Theres seems to be trust issues with our talent pool. Every coach we’ve had don’t want to risk a few things. We had friendly to try things out... But we didn’t. Who knows maybe playing Mantalos and Vasiliadis together at CM could work better than Zeca-Kourbelis-Bouchalakis combo. Try it, if doesn’t work don’t do it again. Don’t have to always play 2 DMs there. We struggle for goals so we need someone more creative and attacking in that CM role.

I've said I want either of Gala, Mantalo or Vas in at CM, No Wing spot for Mantalos either. Bakasetas works if Ethniki plays with a Second Striker-only. Seeing as they don't, Baka doesn't fit in that squad, unless he becomes a striker and I don't think that will ever be his go. Maybe as a CM cause he has hussle about him, energy. He appears not overly technical for that level. The only current AM options must be out of Fortounis, Pelkas or Mantalos. JVS is abit slow to make change. Every other gaffa since 2014 has had this issue, they had either coached an ordinary team at the time, and/or, didn't make the right selections and fell on their swords. Based on previous outcomes of managers of the Ethniki, who is to say the next gaffa will satisfy the fans on the forum with team selections? He might start playing Pavlidis as a DM and Svarnas as LW because he sees something we don't.. Would any of you guys gamble everything you have with regard to the EPO being transparent and honest, or not? The Only other explanaton would be that EPO control the managers of Ethniki cause they pay the bills, take mavra in brown paper bags and pander to the CEO's of certain Super League and overseas player managers and clubs. This would explain constant stupid team selections.

I'm fine with Pav and Lim obv, they can start everygame. They're definitely not the issue out there. Those are all good line ups guys, problem is he'll never even attempt play them because these idiot greek coaches never do what makes sense. I think the friendly was a telltale sign of this coaches lack of anything. So many things could have been tried out, instead he just did the same s%$#! he's been doing. Like if course non of us are soccer mastermind(maybe some of us 😝), but we all know the game pretty well. And what's frustrating is is that we're not in here posting insane ideas for line ups, we're on here posting very logical realistic line ups. That's where you know theres a massive problem. And although we're not in that dressing room, we all highly doubt he's forced into these line ups because of the personnel available/unavailable to him. Any logical coach would have tried his line up, seen it was ineffective and switched to something different, but not him. And this ego s#it he's pulling with manolas, socs, siovas and fetfa is very bad. Manolas and soc have bled for the shirt and deserve better than that. This guys acting like a big shot in borrowed shoes. He's proven nothing and he walks in the door kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. This clown wouldnt have even gotten hired if epo wasn't so broke and incompetent

Let's be honest....we haven't had a good clear cut Transfer window in years, if ever. Not once have we ended a season and made the proper signings that would A.) Improve positions that were lacking the previous season B.) Improve to a level to compete in whichever stage of European Competition we were faced with and C.) Renewed existing contracts or Selling unwanted players, in a timely fashion. A couple years ago, although we had a successful season, we KNEW that we needed to beef up the midfield with more speed/creativity and what do we do? Let go of Sakhov and Canas, and borught in WHO, exactly? We switch Technical directors and Coaches every year so there is NEVER a solid long term plan in the workings. It's basically a revolving door of 1.New Coachh 2. New players for that coaches system 3. New TD to get those players 4. Coach leaves in a year 5. Scramble for New coach 6. Get Rid of players we just signed for the previous coach 7. Find NEW players for the new coach 8. Hire a new TD to get those players and round and round we go. Every Signing we make is a BAM that turns out to be Pew To Mauro Pistoli. It's honestly exhausting. So far Colac and Weiger (or however you spell their names) have been absolute duds (I know it's still early to tell).....In Traditional PAOK fashion we're dropping points left and right, and before we know it we're battling for 2nd or 3rd place by the 6th Week of the season. This off-season we knew we were keeping the coach. We knew that Akpom wanted to leave (per the TD press conference). We KNEW that we had issues in the midfield. We KNEW we needed a solid CF to go into CL. We knew Matos wasn't in the plans (and now he's back). We knew, we knew, we knew and still we got kourades, and last minute signings that are the equivalent of when you're the last one to get to the supermarket and have to pick from the crappy produce that's left over. I know everyone likes to talk about Marinaki and Melissanindi, but make no mistakes. Savvidis is a Mafioso. You don't go from squalor to becoming a multi billionaire in Russia by being an upstanding citizen. Just the fact that he's held high positions in the Russin govt proves that. Even if his intentions may be genuine, and he may love his Greek roots, and is proud of his Pontian heritage, and a champion of the Greek church/faith...it's all about the Rubles in the end. Did he buy the team to keep his mildly retarded son occupied and out of his hair? Maybe. 60-100 Million Euro's is a small price to pay to keep a Neanderthal, loser son out of the limelight (Current political events in US prove that point)... BUT FOR CHRIST'S SAKE AT LEAST GET SOME COMPETENT PEOPLE TO RUN THE BUSINESS!!! All this PAOK TV, PAOK Youtube channel, and heavy improvements in Social Media presence is basically like putting a Gucci belt on a pig...Sure, now you have a fancy pig...but it's still a pig. "...But, Boston....we won 3 Cups and had an undefeated season and made history!!" Let's clear things up....did the team WOW you on the field at all that season, with a few exceptions? Did we win or did everybody else just lose? Ok, that's probably the longest post I've ever written here...I'll just be like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day and watch the match today...if we win I'll be jumping up and down screaming "PAOK S'AGAPW, PAOK EISAI O ENAS" and if we lose, I'll blame luck and fate or whatever other excuse I can find.