Bananas

You sir, are hardcore! Ivan the Terrible comes to Thessaloniki, pays off our 10 million euro debt (do you remember that?) increases the player budget I don't know how much but it must be 3 or 4 fold, has built the best youth facilities in the country, makes it so that we are genuine contenders each season, wins us 2 championships and 4 cups and you reaction is ... where is the stadium ha ha. Good lord, will you ever be thankful? I guess if not by now, then the answer is no. Maybe one day you'll get your wish and Ivan the Terrible will leave. And then you will see what happens. If you're not sure go and speak to a Panathinaikos fan. Once they chased away the Vardinoyiannides that were putting in the money for all those years they haven't won a championships since then. At the time though the fans were all giving each other high fives about how hardcore they were. I think even if the stadium was built you'd would still complain. If the club ever gets sold to someone with money, hey, I won't be upset but in all our illustrious history only one person has put in big money so I ain't holding out much hope. It's not like there's a massive queue of people hanging to buy the club.

s%$#!, are you actually a PAOK fan? I always assumed you were an undercover gavro or xanoumi.

If it was that easy to attract players to the 18th best league in Europe, it would've been done by now. Maybe if we paid Arab money but last I checked we ain't Arabs, we don't have oil and even Ivan the Great doesn't have that kind of cash. To attract the players you'd like, we wouldn't have to pay overs, we'd have to pay over overs if you get me. Maybe if we throw in a pic of Ivan on the horse that might get em cheaper. You never know. As for Marcos A, he barely played last season. So I don't know what Camara is, but he isn't a replacement for a player that barely contributed. If anything he was meant to add options to the midfield rotation but now that Meite is unlikely to stay I guess he's Meite's replacement.

None of us want to see Kotarski leave. He's been our best GK maybe ever. Very reliable. As for the offer from Genoa, it's pitiful. If we do sell, anything under 7 million would be a shame. 10 million would be acceptable. Hopefully we hold out and he doesn't kick up a fuss. Ideally we don't sell as it's not easy to find a good GK but I guess people's short term memory isn't reliable. Discussions with Brignoli make sense, just in case. He is a decent GK apart from that one patch for a few weeks where he just lost the plot.

I'm surprised we signed Camara. I really didn't think it was going to happen. By all accounts he's a good player. Whether he's worth his salary, time will tell. As for Vierinha, I think there's still some value in having him for another year. The value is in his leadership in the club room much more so than on the pitch.

I don't think PAO is with AEK. At least I haven't gotten that impression. There is definitely animosity between Olympiacos and AEK but I am not sure what's triggered it. When you have Kougias saying he hopes PAOK wins the title because we at least are a "kathari omada" you know you really are in wonderland. Essentially Kougias is saying the AEK has an alliance with Aris and Lamia but I don't buy it. Well Lamia maybe but if there was an alliance with Aris then why did Aris make it 3-3 in the final minutes of their game recently? Just doesn't add up. https://www.newsit.gr/athlitika/aleksis-kougias-as-parei-to-protathlima-mia-kathari-omada-opos-o-paok-kai-oxi-i-aek-pou-paizei-filika/4081289/

They've done so poorly in Europe in the last decade that they're always in the weaker group. I noticed there is a chance they could play with Ajax - nasty. That's how it goes - they're going to have to fight for the next 3, 4 or 5 seasons unfortunately to bring up the rating.

Ela re paidia. It's not the old days where we had financial problems and when we sold players we pulled our pants down and handed the buying club the vaseline as well. Please sir can I have some more. We don't need to sell so just don't. Offer the kid 1 million or a bit more - he deserves it. And hold out for a decent number. It's not like we're stopping him from going to the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga or even Serie A. It's the f**king Austrian league which is basically on par with our own league.

I think we should be concentrating on not selling anyone ... where possible ... given that we realistically have our best chance ever at qualifying for the Champions League. In previous seasons we had the more difficult path playing stronger teams. By winning the title we at least give ourselves a better chance. Bringing in new players is not the problem per se. It's if these players are replacements for *starting 11* players. If for example, Kotarski, Koulierakis, Konstantelias are sold and let's say Meite isn't bought, then that's 4 starting 11 players that must be replaced for the qualifiers. That's not exactly a recipe for winning, especially given how long Lucescu takes to acclimatise players to have the right men-ta-li-ty as I love to hear him say. As for the 15 million for Konstantelias, I don't know, it seems a bit meh. These days 15 million is nothing special at all. Go look at the transfer history of mid table French or Italian teams and they spend that and more on players like it's nothing. At the very least we should be holding on to the players we have for the first qualifier. That game is KEY. We win, we are guaranteed Conference League football. We lose ... I don't even want to think about it.

Firstly, congratulations to Olympiacos (ducks head while the crowd throws food at me) on winning the UEFA Conference League. A historic achievement for Olympiacos and for Greek football. What are the implications for the number teams in Europe next season? Does this mean O Aris gets a spot? Wouldn't that be funny ...

Sheez, apparently we are still not financially self sufficient. The article states the sum total of funds invested by Ivan Savvidis is 194 million. Not enough I tells ya, not enough. Leave now! Oust.

Meite was our best midfielder by far. There were times he dominated opposition midfields and he was highly praised in general in the media. Samatta you could say was overall a fail. Definitely not the striker we were looking for but right now (and this is more a reflection of the squad) we need Samatta for those games where we need some physicality up front. Marcus Antonio not even bad - did he even play? He was basically a tourist.

Arxisame. I have heard kafeneio quality rumors that Ivan has cash flow problems and might be selling the club in the next season or two. Maybe your wish will come true.

Hard to believe - I think it's that time of year when the media need to start inventing stories to fill the pages. If they want to spend that much I guess the club would consider it but it's not really an upgrade - more of a side grade. I don't think the kid would want to go there. On a side note, I don't think he's ready to leave the club yet. He's had basically one good season. Not outstanding - just good. He needs to first be absolutely killing it in the Greek League before leaving for a tougher league.

The issue with getting new players is they take a very long time (for some unknown reason) to integrate into the team. So the question is, what's more important: qualifying for the CL or getting a new bunch of players that will take 6 months to learn the way Lucescu wants to play. For myself, I think we would be insane to not sign Kedziora. What more can the guy do? He was rock solid this season, the definition of reliable. Even if we got 2 new CB's I'd still sign Kedziora. Same goes for Meite and Schwab. They will all have a role to play in a long season with lots of games.

Like I said, easy. ?

This championship is one to savour. Given the pessimism at the beginning of the season due to our chaotic transfer period (is it ever not chaotic) and all of the predictions of we'll finish 4th, I'll take it. I won't get into comparisons with the 2018/19 team as the two squads did the job in different ways. We peaked at the right time (well not so much at the beginning of the play offs), winning 4 derbies to finish and overall I think we were probably the most consistent team this season. I'm happy for some players in the squad, especially Vierinha and Schwab who may not be with us next season. Schwab has given his all and has been a very good player for us and has stepped up on many occasions to lift the team. Time to celebrate this most unexpected championship.

Curious, if we end up on the same points as AEK at the end, what is the tie breaker?

Good point Athens. We haven't had a proper striker all season so all things considered we've done pretty darn good. Hopefully we can secure 3rd spot but it won't be easy with the gavroi breathing down our necks.

I think this is a shame. Does he really have nothing to add to the squad? At the beginning of the season where no one knew what the heck was going on with transfers, he and Schwab played in the middle for the ECL qualifiers and the first batch of league games and he seemed to do well. If it's the case that the club intends on replacing him with someone better than fair enough but it just seems like when he was needed, he did the job, and now he's been side lined. Anyway, hard to say unless you're in the know but that's how it appears.

Kedziora I think his contract is expiring with Dynamo Kiev. We should try and sign him. Koulierakis if we sell for anything under 15 million we are stooges. Ekong who knows. He had moments where he was ok. But just ok. Not the intention when we signed him which was for him to be the general at the back. Nasberg again who knows. The midfield is a bit up in the air also. Antonio won't be around and he didn't do much anyway. Meite we out to sign but let's see. Schwab is getting on (but he's done well) and who knows again. Tsiggaras same. Lots of work to do. As always, I'm sure we'll leave it to the last minute. ?

This match up was a good thing either way. It's matches like these that let you know what level you're at. We were not unlucky. We were beaten by a better team. If we played them again, the result would be the same. In a way, this is better than losing by 1 goal and then we delude ourselves into thinking we're better than we are. Even I was having visions of grandeur of making it to the final. So, what does it all mean? It means if the club wants to be able to go toe to toe against teams like Club Brugge we need to improve the quality of the squad. Maybe that's not possible due to finances or difficulty in getting quality players to play in Greece. Either way, we had a very good run in Europe so overall I'm pleased and not feeling dirty about losing to a better opponent.

Easy guys. Win all 4 remaining games. Olympiacos to steal points from AEK and PAO. Job done.

Good result. Actually, considering we were down 2-0 it's a great result. Mind games by Almeida substituting on Fernandes? I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah I totally tripped listening to Tsiartas speaking spanish. Who would've thought it. I think he only played 2 season in Spain. Anyway, good on him. As to the draw all things considered, Brugge is a good draw. All teams are strong at this point. 50/50.