Athens4

It's been a while since I last posted, I hope everyone is well. Ivan's project for PAOK (if there ever was one) has failed. Aside from winning the league along with some cups, growth comes from having successful stints in European competitions. Nobody cares about a Greek league where some teams don't even play at their own stadium (eg. Kalamata, Kifisia) or where Greek referees are not trusted to officiate games in their own league. Despite their relegation to the third division to avoid paying back €400m debt and their tendency to win games and championships in court, AEK and Iliopoulos have made the CL group stage in just two years. OFI clearly had a plan in place because of Bousis. It took them a few years, but they reached the cup final two years in a row, winning it once along with Super Cup this season. They are now in the Europa League, with two convincing wins. A fantastic achievement for a club like OFI, that usually fields 7-8 Greek players. Savvidis has been at PAOK for nearly 15 years. The only positives are the academy (and that has only seen recent success), two leagues and a few cups. We have done absolutely nothing in Europe. Since Akpom left the team, every Summer has been the same - "we will get a striker if we get into the group/league stage". We got rid of two 30-something year old players (Kedziora and Ozdoev) and brought in two other 30-something year olds in Santamaria and Elustondo. Why? Konstantelias carried the team for the past few seasons, it was only right that he left for bigger and better things (though we should have negotiated him leaving after the games with Brann). There is no plan in place. Most of the players are not good enough and, as bananas said above, it is probably going to be a dull year. My only hope is that they give Lisci more time. Everyone else will have two games a week. If he is able to somehow conjure up some chemistry and make a team that competes then we might actually be in a good position. Highly unlikely, though.

Tissoudali is a winger (or at least that was the position he played when he played against a couple of years ago in the Conference League). I, too, have no idea why Samatta is getting game time. We really should have offloaded him when we had the chance. We got him for free, why would this be the transfer to make a profit?

PAOK hasn't made good transfers for a while now.

Really need to beat Slavia.

Deal complete. On Transfermarkt their other keepers are not eligible for Europa League, so I assume they will need to buy another keeper or use a youth?

They stole 1 from him in 2018. He won it in 2019 with a point deduction. He won it last season without a proper striker. He will win it this year without even being on the bench.

Classic Greek journalism. They need the clicks for the ad-revenue so they will write anything.

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

Our 18 year old loanee scoring 8 in Germany while we are begging the board to bring in a killer striker in January. What a joke.

Until he starts scoring, he isn't really doing his job. Unless we accept that he has become a player that sits in just behind the striker and facilitates.

But he isn't doing his job. Unless this is sarcasm. Hard to tell.

Pretty sure he is on €1m or €1.5m a year - you would have to be insane to jeopardise that.

I thought the buyout clause was €20m.

Just saw the highlights. The foul on Samatta was just outside the box so it would have been a free kick. Probably should have been given. Generally it looks like it was a bad performance and we are fortunate to have gotten away with just a 1-0 defeat. Iliopoulos seems to be a clown. Saw a video with their fans attacking our players in the car park. I think that should be enough fuel for the 2nd leg. Samatta scoring with a solid finish only to have it ruled offside is hilarious.

What is wrong with Colley?