Bananas

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.

Great night guys. One we'll remember for a while.

Wow, all of a sudden in the space of a couple of weeks half our back line is out.

Taison's pace is just amazing for his age. I don't even want to think about how fast he was earlier in his career.

You guys are a bit harsh regarding Murg. From a playing perspective, you couldn't ask for more from him. He is playing at a very high level. Also, his age is perfect. Peak age. I guess it comes down to does the club think they can find an equivalent player for similar money. If the answer is, we're not sure, or, we'll work it out in the summer, then I'd be looking at renewing his contract. Of course, it depends also on how much he's asking for. If the club has a list of replacements ready then that changes things, but forgive me if I don't have faith in our transfer dealings. Knowing our club, Murg will get upset and leave on a free contract to one of the Athens clubs. Then a big offer will come in for Konstantelias and we'll be scrambling for two number 10's in the summer.

According to sport24.gr Panathinaikos have offered Maximovic 2 million per year which is quite a sum. We can't know what wages PAOK were considering when we tried to sign him earlier in the year but I imagine not in that ball park. We have to remember that at the beginning of the season all of us fans were fairly disappointed with (a) our lack of expediency in getting transfers early and (b) the quality of our transfers. Now in hindsight, all is fairly well. So I imagine the urgency to sign Maximovic is no longer there. Not that he wouldn't be a great addition to the squad but the team is cruising along nicely so the same urgency isn't there. And even if it was, I just don't know if 2 million is something we would offer. On another note, the signing of a RB is obviously the most urgent issue. Why we would let Lyratzis go on loan without having done this I don't understand. Maybe Lyratzis just had enough and Lucescu has rolled the dice. Who knows. For now we see out the season. If we win the title, great. If not, we have a good foundation for next season.

If it's up to the club I don't think they would sell for anything under 15 or even 20. The money would be nice but we don't need to sell. The only way Konstantelias gets sold for 10 is if he does a Tzolis and forces the clubs hand. Which of course is possible but we're not there ... yet. As for actually being able to play in the EPL, I think he would get smashed there. I could be wrong but I think it's just much too physical for him. It would be a risky move and I think unwise. Honestly, I think the smart play for him is too see out the season and just keep getting first team minutes under his belt. He has plenty of time on his side. These clubs in the EPL have so much money. If they buy a player and it doesn't work out and fairly quickly, they are more than prepared to push them to the side and all of a sudden you're being loaned out and things go down from there. Where ever he goes, if he is smart, he'll go somewhere where he gets lots of first team football.

According to transfermarkt Rosier has been injured since the start of December. I would be surprised if we paid "full price" for a player that is injured and who is deemed surplus to requirements at Besiktas. On paper he is much better than what we have but there is always risk signing an injured player and for PAOK at least 4.8 million is quite a bit of cash.

Assuming there is any truth to this, you would have to think it's only for personal reasons. That is, he'd be back home in his country.

I'd like to know what the hell happened with Murg between last season and this season. He's a revelation. It's bizarre that a player who wasn't even training with the first team is now one of our best and most reliable players. His composure and finishing on that 2nd goal was excellent. Lots of forwards would've messed that up. I only saw the highlights this morning on Nova but if you ask me what was the best play of the day, it was Murg in the 23rd minute when he ran almost the length of the pitch to pressure their counter attack and then even be the last man back to clear the ball off the line. Damn impressive.

Overall a great campaign so far. Couldn't ask for more. Sure it's just the Conference League but if we're going to be here we should be spanking most of these teams. The victories over Eintracht were a nice bonus. We will now skip a round and go straight through to the round of 16. I'm curious, do we get any bonus UEFA coefficient points for skipping a game?

Angry official response from Marinakis incoming detailing the corruption in the Greek league. 😁 So many years of them being played 80/20 by referees has warped their minds. If this game was played 10 years ago the final score would have been 1-4 to Olympiacos.

Couldn't ask for a better draw. Avoided some tricky teams. No excuse for not advancing past the group stage.

Great outcome. These european qualifications are always so damn stressful with so much at stake.

Are you upset because AEX lost?

Jesus we just *love* to make things difficult for ourselves. I thought that part of "cleaning up" the back office and having technical directors, scouts etc. was to stop this amateur scrambling for transfers and instead actually plan (I know that sounds funny) and assemble the squad carefully. It's frustrating.

@pashif you can make sense of the link our illustrious leader provided please post it in these forums. I find financial terminology difficult to understand in English let alone Greek.

Our squad is thin this season. By that I mean the quality between the best 11 (who aren't too bad) and the bench. I can see us beginning to drop points from round 10'ish. Sooner if we qualify for the ECL.

Does PAOK actually produce P&L statements? It would be interesting to see. I'd be surprised if Savvidis isn't tens of millions in the red in his "investment" in PAOK. I think others forget before Savvidis our wages to players were *much* lower and even those measly amounts were often not paid in full. Players leaving the club unpaid and often we'd underpay them just so they could leave. Fire sales. A back office that was for the most part more a kafeneio than a modern professional club. Debts, lots of debts. Short term memory loss maybe. What was I talking about? If Savvidis were to leave and we went back to the old ways, the Athenians would *REJOICE*. As would sadly, a bunch of "PAOK" fans. It's ok to be frustrated at our lack of improvements since the title win. But to want to return to the old days ... insanity. In the meantime, I am trying to tee up a zoom meeting with Mitsotakis and PAOKSYD. Proving to be a bit harder than I thought.