GS1905

Actually Samsunspor have a seemingly very good core of players in them.They've got Vlado Petkovic as the team's headcoach. He enjoyed fantastic success at Young Boys Bern, as he promoted top quality players to the world stage, including Seydou Doumbia and Thierry Doubai. They have a decent goalkeeper in Ertugrul Taşkıran, on loan from Fenerbahce. He was a key player for Fenerbahce A2 (U21s) team when I worked there. Sometimes flops in crosses department, but still OK. Just 21 y-o. Defence seems to be the weakest area. They have former PSV centre-back Andre Bahia, who seems to be the only decent players in that unit. Valdomiro, Hakan Arslan and Kemal do not seem sufficient. They have Michael Fink, formerly of Beşiktaş and Monchengladbach in the midfield, partnered by Colombian Dominguez Cabezas, who they signed from FC Sion. On the right side plays Simon Zenke, Nigerian powerhouse wingforward. On the left they usually put Pal Lazar of Hungary, or Ekigho Ehiosun of Nigeria. Ekigho is the guy who scored both goals vs Galatasaray last week, as they went up 2-0, before losing 2-4. The striker since the beginning of the season has been Aristide Bance, former Mainz striker. And now that Gekas arrived for that position, I could see Bance either downgraded to the bench, or put on the left side instead of Ekigho. As stated, Samsunspor do have a very good core of players, plus a decent coach. Will they turn things around in the second half of the season, I don't know but there's every reason to be hopeful.

Hey mods, time to change the current title to Fanis Gekas (Samsunspor A.Ş.).. ;)

He's just signed a 2,5 year contract, worth ?300k for the remainder of this season, ?500k for next season, and ?600k for his final season to be. I don't know what his bonuses will be. By the way, as Galatasaray are away at Samsunspor later this evening, strange things happened. When Gekas landed at Samsun 19 Mayıs Airport, it was Galatasaray fans that greeted him. :LOL: Check out this photo gallery for further details and laugh!! :LOL: :LOL: (Pic 10 shows him with his new jersey on) ;) Gekas in Samsun - Gallery

Indeed!I felt he could still be worthy and good enough if he joined Galatasaray to back Elmander and Baros up. Great signing for Samsunspor!! :tup: Pity that their first game is against Gala! :o

Gekas to join Samsunspor According to Milliyet and many other Turkish papers such as Fanatik, Zaman and Sabah, Greek striker Fanis Gekas is set to join Turkish Superleague strugglers Samsunspor in a few days. Samsunspor Director of Football Adnan Sezgin is in Germany to sort out the final few details of the transfer.

It's a done deal. Galatasaray have notified the Stock Market that they have reached an agreement with Albert Riera. Galatasaray will pay Olympiakos €3M, €2M of which is paid the day the player signs the deal, and the remaining €1M will be paid in 2 installments of €500k in January 2012 and July 2012. Albert Riera is going to sign a 3+1 year contract, getting €2.7M in his first season, €2.9M in his second, €2.9M in his third and €3M in his additional year if his contract is extended. Riera's contract will be extended by default if he plays 20 league games in his third season. He will also get €7,5k per game for his full 90 minutes. Official Announcement

seemingly our football director and chairman's personal lawyer is in piraeus to sort the riera thing out. nothing's been on the club's web site yet, but insider rumours and both turkish and greek press keep putting up figures for the transfer. according to turkish sports web site sporx.com, galatasaray will announce sulley muntari and albert riera tomorrow. for riera, olympiakos will be paid €4.5m and the spaniard will be given €3.1m a season for 3 years. i think that will be a sad move for us after establishing such a good squad, to compliment it with a nomadic spaniard who seems to be worried wherever he goes, and do it by paying a massive lump of money.. fatih terim said he is a fan of riera for a long time, to chairman unal aysal, in a behind-closed-doors meeting.

Ela re you make some very good points around the African player's ages.I think it should have been very suspicious when Makoun turned up at Rendi to sign his contract with Oly with his 26 year old son! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: I still think Makoun is an improvement over Maniatis, though. By the way, Turkish press is crazily writing today that Albert Riera is a target for Galatasaray.

oh man, that's nearly blue!! :LOL:

8 Euros?? wow.. that's quite cheap actually! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

man, he is not a bench player to start with. he was a rotation player and under Tigana and Denizli -coaches who prefer attacking football- he flourished. he's way way better than your beloved chump Diogo who is not even able to stand on his two feet whilst trying to walk in Pasalimani (he's the fastest graduate of the Serbian School of Paradiving anyways) :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: but ?10m??? i heard it went up to 7 at the most with Olympiacos paying 4 and Bobo's agent the rest.

Terim to OSFP ? How about this? The article states Terim is in Kokkalis' mind to be the new headcoach at Olympiakos for the next season. The other candidates are Ewald Lienen, Berndt Schuster -who will almost 90 % coach Galatasaray next year- and Alain Perrin, St-Etienne manager... Any truth in this rumour ?

He left because the management made him feel that he wasn't wanted anymore at the club. Galatasaray finished that season in third spot fourteen behind Fener and nine behind Besiktas and even though Sasa had a fine performance (11 goals, 10 assists), he was victimised and felt he had to go even though fans loved him. Another reason for him to be gone was the long-awaited signature of Lincoln from Schalke, though ironically when you look at their contributions in their two-year spells each we have Sasa who had 23 goals - 17 assists whose contributions have been way superior compared to Lincoln's (12 goals - 15 assists). The fee paid (€ 870k) to Galatasaray by Red Bull Salzburg for his services is ridicuolous compared to what he has accomplished. He was probably the last worst piece of business (among with losing Ribery for free because of him not getting paid, the stadium saga, coaches getting sacked and paid huge amounts of compensation etc) by the Canaydin dynasty. Luckily now, we have a Board who send scouts to nearly everywhere, who can sign players of Baros and Kewell's calibre for realtively small amounts and who can express interest in top-class players like Miguel, Emmanuelson and Seitaridis...

that's quite strange! he's 35 now and looked in a very poor physical condition for about a year or so in Fenerbahce. :o how is Ilic doing there? he's a very-well remembered figure for all the Galatasaray fans, not quite an icon like Hagi, Sukur or Mondragon but still i hope him the very best because he's the sort of guy who does everything he can to help his team win. does Larisa have a fee clause to purchase him after the loan, any ideas?

I also think Larissa signed Tumer again in the winter window, am I mistaken?