Bananas

Yeah not good. I’d like to know how many injuries have occurred during training. Seems to be too many.

What the heck, when did Garcia learn to speak Greek ? Last time I saw an interview with him he had a translator. I like how he’s ready to punch on, ha ha. https://www.contra.gr/opinions/stauros-karaindros/o-gkarsia-esvise-ton-fereira-san-min-perase-pote-apo-ton-paok.9034980.html

We need Dutch Eagle to lift the Dutch curse. Acquire a peponi, a chicken and the services of the best voodoo practitioner you can find. If you are having trouble, there is a PAOK fan in Zambia that may assist.

Good choice regarding Malezas. One of our boys.

Well this came out of left field. Never could I have imagined any team being interested in wanting to acquire Abel as their manager, let alone a big club like Palmeiras. It’s quite bizarre really. Maybe Savvidis has gangster contacts in Brazil and there is black money being sloshed around offshore accounts. A case of conspiracy theory making more sense than anything else. Regardless, much to my surprise, I’m not that keen on Abel leaving. Yes, he can be inflexible but overall he has the team in a decent state. The squad is quite fit, and we are playing a decent brand of football. It’s not like we are playing terrible and are being outplayed each week. Our problem is obvious to all i.e. lack of firepower up front. We are lacking a killer striker and players that can run at defences. Zifkovic, Tzolis and other attackers are all solid players but don’t have that ability to charge at and rip through defences like say a Mak or Rodrigues could. In the striking department again we are a little lacking. Give us El Arabi and we are winning the title. Let’s see if Colak comes good. The other obvious criticism of Abel is playing three at the back in the GSL. Totally unnecessary for 90% of games in Greece and probably detrimental. I’m sure he has his reasons, I just can’t work out what they are. And now onto Garcia. Again, much to my surprise I’m not that keen on his appointment. Not because I don’t love him, but precisely because I do. Being a manager, especially in the modern era, is a thankless task. It hardly ever ends well and the last thing I want to see is the “legend” of Garcia diminished, or worse, he leaves the club with bad blood. If it can happen with Ivic or Lucescu (thanks for winning us a title after 35 years) it can happen with anyone. I hope I’m very wrong. He’s done an awesome job with the youth team and brought up a couple of hopeful kids (Tzolis, Michailidis) and that’s all I want from a youth coach. I just hope however and whenever his tenure comes to an end it isn’t in typical kafeneio fashion. I guess we’ll soon find out if Garcia is made for first team football. Newsflash, ha ha, I can see it now “where are all the wingers”, “we sold them all because Abel didn’t need them”, “PAOK looking for wingers in next transfer period”. I remember saying a few years ago that all I f**king wanted was for the circus of hiring and firing managers to end and to just have one manager stay for more than a year. Behold, my wish was granted, and Lucescu stayed for two. An eternity by PAOK standards. We have reverted to our mean for the time being.

Soares adequate, hmm, he’s half the player Matos is. Anyway what’s done is done. The way we send off players that served the club well, that’s kafeneio 103. Who knows, maybe he’ll be back in 3 weeks. Deficit ? Do we still have one ? Anyone have some figures.

You say that about everyone ha ha. Is there any player you wouldn’t want to be sold ? I’d be ok with this if we had an equivalent player but we don’t. He’s been our best RB since probably Borbokis. Not easy to find a quality full back. We can’t buy a goal to save our lives and we get rid of a full back that you know will score you 5 goals a season and drives the team. And we just made him a “captain” ... kafeneio 101 kafeneio 102.

paokarag4 has nailed it with the clubs dealings with exisiting players. Not a good look - straight from kafeneio 101. As for Vieirinha don’t write a long goodbye and then 3 weeks later you “changed your mind”. That looks just as bad.

Likewise I've lost interest in the CL now. Not sure if it's because the excitement has worn off or because of the big money involved. It was good in the beginning when you could have teams like Ajax, Deportivo come out of nowhere with great teams. Now, the big money has been funnelled for too long to the same teams and the concentration of money has made it relatively boring. At least to me, everyone has their view. One thing is for sure, the big clubs want it all - they want this new league plus to be able to play domestically. The only way they will back down is if UEFA gets involved and then there is a huge backlash from the fans.

Horrible idea but hey if they can make it stick good luck to them. I still remember the shock I got when I found out the LA Dodgers were like from ... Brooklyn. Wtf, ha ha. Let's just pick up PAOK and move them to Athens and call them a different name. But it works in the US. UEFA and the Leagues at some point will need to draw a line in the sand. This idea keeps getting pushed every few years so I don't know if it's just a media beat up so the big clubs can get even MOAR money and power (their avarice just can't be satiated) or if these big clubs really want this to happen. The interesting thing is what could UEFA and the Leagues do ? Could they, if they wanted to go the nuclear option, ban those nations from participating in the Euros and Nations League ? Or if we want to more granular, not allow players who play in the new league to play in these tournaments ? Could the Leagues of each nation ban said clubs from participating in their domestic leagues ? The reaction if this went ahead would definitely be interesting. European fans are shall we say more invested (for evidence search youtube with keywords "PAOK" and "hooliganism") so it would be interesting to see the overall reaction, or will they just take pay off the domestic teams (here kids, grabs some of the crumbs that fell off the table on your way out) and it's all done and dusted. It really would be the biggest change in European football ever.

See you Yiankos - I understand. Good luck with everything my man.

Pelkas has served the club well. I'm happy for him to go if that's what he really wants - good luck to him. Obviously would have preferred he stays but he is, with no offense intended, replaceable. Still, always hurts when one of your own leaves.

The CL has become a self fulfilling prophecy. There was always stronger leagues and stronger teams but now the gap is VAST. I remember when Juventus got smashed 3-1 by Panathinaikos in Athens in 2000. Now that will never happen in the next 1000 years. Thank you UEFA, keep funnelling that money in the right direction (and your own pockets of course).

UEFA champion of the common man. It was much more interesting in the old days when you played a team whose squad were composed of players from that country. If you beat say a Hungarian team it was composed of you know Hungarian players (probably a bad example). Now, it’s like you’re playing a corporation.

Thanks champ.

That’s because they’re idiots. Having said that I think it’s a decent draw. I much prefer PSV over teams like Arsenal, Roma, Napoli, Benfica. Granada, most people think we should beat but once again, unsurprisingly, they have a bigger budget than us, so it won’t be easy. They play in a proper league with proper teams and won’t be initimidated by us. As paokarag4 said, we have to get 6 points against Omonia, to even think about progressing. Again not easy, but essential. If we play to the general standard we’ve had in these CL qualifiers we are a chance. But it all depends on how the team goes in the next couple of months. I feel like the team, or more specifically, Ferreira is all over the shop. If we start having a bad run in the league I can see the morale of the team will drop and will affect our EL performances. A lot depends on sorting out the striker position and after that the RB. You can’t expect to play in Europe against proper teams without a guy that can finish.

@paokarag4where did you get that info ? I tried making sense of kassiessa but my mind imploded.

No thanks.

It's a new competition below Europa League. So now we have 3 competitions :- * Champions League * Europa League * Conference League (terrible name by the way). The current system where 3rd place from Champions League Group Stages goes to the Europa League Knock Out stages will become obsolete. So, once you're in one of these 3 competitions, that's it. You'll need to finish 1st or 2nd in your group to proceed further. Otherwise, you're done in Europe for that year. Because Greece is ranked 18th in Europe, they will only have 4 teams next season. One in Champions League and three in Conference League. At least that's my understanding of it. You would think we would pick up more points in the Conference League so in time we should move up the rankings. Not sure where we need to reach to in order to get Europa League allocations.

As others have mentioned our poor runs in recent years have cost us and until we get a steady run for a few seasons we can't expect CL football. Some nasty teams in Pot 1, half of them are CL quality. Pot 2 the only plus is we'll avoid Leicester. Pot 2 and 3 are of similar quality. I think Zeus will throw a Dutch team at us. I'd prefer Glasgow, just so we can take points from Scotland who are above us. Then again everyone is above us these days. Pot 4 I'd like to avoid French teams.

@BostonThanatos love that commercial. ?

Tzavellas, well that was unexpected. If the only good thing that comes of it is it riles up Boxou then I suppose it's worth it.

Wague Banana, why the hell not. Let's add that to the urban dictionary.

@Athens4 if you want to make the CL email Savvidis and tell him to spend some money. Oh that's right, he can't due to FFP. I believe if we had Cabella playing for us we would've qualified instead of Krasnodar. Problem is he cost Krasnodar 12 million. That's how much we'll spend on 6 players over 4 years. We shouldn't cry when we can beat teams with bigger budgets and better quality squads. Yes, we had our chances, but they didn't get there. As for the Conference League, maybe that's where our teams belong. Let's face it, the league has dropped multiple spots over the last 15 years in the rankings. Every year we drop another level. Something is obviously wrong with our league and I don't put it all down to money. Anyway, with 4 teams each win in Europe will count for more and I'd like to think we would get more wins in the Conference League.

As long as we're in Europe, be it EL or CL or whatever, I'm happy. If CL didn't have the big money it does, I couldn't give a rats whether we play there or EL. Then again, I'm not normal.