Bananas

What's the impetus for a new stadium anyway ? If you take say Arsenal as an example, they needed more capacity so they could generate more revenue. But even if we had a new stadium it's not like we would suddenly have it full for each game. Sure it'd look pretty, but I don't see how it would improve the bottom line. As to how to build it, the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) was a roughly 100,000 seat stadium and they did it in two stages I believe. Basically knocked down one half of the stadium, rebuilt it and then did the other half. Of course, this is Greece we're talking about so I don't even know why I'm mentioning this. For anyone wondering what cricket is, it's a game that is played over 5 days and can still end up in a draw.

Most of the money Savvidis spent has been to acquire the shares of the club ~20 million (not sure on the exact amount) followed by paying off the debt of ~11 million to the government. Having said that, the paying off of the debt was a monumental thing. I was truly impressed and amazed. Savvidis has also spent a few million I believe renovating Toumba but again not sure on the exact amount. None of these things change in any way the quality of the team on the park As to the funds spent on the team they fall into two categories, transfer fees and player wages. The player wages budget has definitely increased (and the players are paid on time) and this can only help in building a stronger squad and attracting decent players into the future. Fairly large sums have been spent on "super" signings like Stoch, Natkho and Berbatov but these players were only there for a half season or one season. Not exactly the wisest use of funds considering their high wages. The only time I would consider such signings a wise investment is when you have a side that is almost at the point of winning the title, and frankly, that's never been the case except to delusional fans. As for transfer fees, not a great deal has been spent. Keep in mind though that pre Savvidis the vast majority of our transfers were free agents because the club just didn't have money to pay a transfer fee. Also, the club would promise certain wages but fairly often couldn't pay and the club/player would split acrimoniously. This was par for the course for PAOK for years. We'd also get fire sales every few years ... that was always a fun time. PAO didn't have a problem picking up Lazaro and Salpi in this manner. As far as transfer fees go we have (according to wikipedia which could be wrong) :- For season 2013/2014 - Lucas 700K, but sold for 1.5M with 25% rights. - Maartens 700K - Skondras 300K Not exactly millions. You can't and shouldn't expect to challenge Olympiakos just because you spent a little under ~2M. For season 2014/2015 - Golasa 450K - Mak 400K Same again as 2013/2014. For season 2015/2016 - Leovac 1.3M - Cimirot 1.3M - Vellidis 750K - Sabo 700K - Olsen 650K, yes we can all stop laughing now. - Chatzisaias 550K - Charisis 450K - Jairo 400K - Korovesis 400K - Antonis 300K - Malezas 100K All right, so spent a bit more this season but you need to offset the sale of Noboa and Lucas which was 3M. So overall the club spent ~4M on transfers. Again, spending 4M to try and challenge Olympiakos is not going to really cut it. As to the team getting worse each year, that's subjective. I think PAOK has been ... decent this season. Other than Olympiakos and in the EL we haven't been played off the park. The team is youthful and nearly all of the old players are gone from the club. Not including Berbatov, Tziolis and Malezas the oldest out field player is Tzavellas at 28. So in my mind this year is (or rather should have been before the fans went crazy yet again) a clean out year and let's see which youngsters have potential. So we have ... Charisis, Cimirot, Mystakidis and Pelkas. Not bad I say. Also Rodrigues has done well. Others not so much but as we all very well know, not all transfers work out. Now if the club has any brains next season they will spend again and strengthen. The team being so youthful maybe a little experience and "toughness" won't go astray. Their goal should not be to win the title, it should simply be to be better than the previous season. Who knows, maybe next season we'll break our record of spending 4 million in transfers ...

Firstly, congratulation on winning the title. As to the stands being empty, I suppose it gets boring for all involved when there is a proper lack of competition. I'm afraid that until (if ever) some of the other teams get their act together, I don't see the situation changing. This is also in my opinion the biggest reason for Olympiakos struggling in Europe post Christmas. When nearly every game is like a training session, your players just won't be match fit ... enough. In the same way that Greek football has slowly but incrementally fallen behind, the opposite needs to occur, but it will take time.

Would be fine if you didn't pay much for these players but when you're paying tens of millions per player it's kind of farcical.

Disappointing but also eye opening. When the fixture was announced many assumed Olympiakos would go through. Many others thought that it would be a tough contest but ultimately Olympiakos would prevail, myself included. If the game was played again, does anyone think the result would be any different ?

Although to be fair, Vryzas was in charge when we got Mak, Pereyra and he also signed Charisis. Whether they were all down to luck or not, who knows.

Apparently it's a label that Australia gave to their Ethniki. They think it's cool, but fail to realise that it's actually embarrassing. Australians do like to think they are the centre of the universe.

What the hell are they cooking in Estonia ?

Impressive. Good for Tripoli because there is no way in hell they could make such a sale in Europe and impressive for Giannou because let's face it he'll never make those sorts of wages in Europe. Not ideal for his career but he'd be silly not to take the money.

Bravo re Dutch Eagle. All right. So I'm just going to say it ::ducks head while walking backwards::. I find watching Barcelona so boring most of the time. I mean to the point where I tune out from watching and just don't anymore. Yes, it's perfect football but it's not entertaining watching a team that is so superior to 90% of the opposition they play. Seriously, 90% of their games are like watching a training session. The contest is ... non existent. I don't get any pleasure from watching it. Yes the passing is crisp and the goals are clinical and yes they play like a team but they are just too good most of the time. Only when they play one of the big teams do I find it interesting.

Forget CL paidia. The odds of making it past the last play off game are seriously stacked against PAOK, AEK, PAO. Doesn't mean it's impossible, but as it stands, we'd be lucky to get through this last play off game one year in ten. Having said that, you have to try but our expectations have to be realistic. Making it would be a bonus.

How much is the stadium going to cost and who is going to pay for it ?

Tsiartas was a magician, end of story. Georgatos played for Inter back when Seria A was the real deal. Giannakopoulos played in the EPL for 5 seasons. Katsouranis was captain of Benfica and got voted best player of the season for them. These guys were serious players. Not the sapia we have today who play one good game in four.

Mostly agree with this line up except for Toro. I truly think he's past it. Toss a coin to see if you're going to get a good game from him or a good cross. As for the XXXXXXX, it sounds about right.

Tzatziki, I don't have time to go through all 14 pages of this thread, but if Rapper's Delight isn't somewhere in there, you should be hung, drawn and quartered.

Pontos, it took you what, 5 or 10 minutes to compile those statistics. Maybe 15 if you're a bit slow. And yet, all we hear during transfer periods is talk of getting a number 10 "that will make the difference" or some such vlakies. It's been obvious for 18 months now that the back line is the most pressing issue on the team. Now, if the team turned around and said we can find the players, but they aren't interested in coming to PAOK, so we have to make do in the meantime, sure, I'll buy that. But when they don't even acknowledge that our defence is terrible, well, what can you say. Most of the goals we concede are so cheap it kills me.

MGMT

Must be the football equivalent of waking up next to a girl in the morning, and in the light of day and being sober, she suddenly doesn't look so pretty anymore.

I'm fairly confident that in a one on one with a hawk, if I was armed with a bunch of bananas, I'd beat the hawk, so I fail to see how Blackhawk is 5 times better.

So true. So true. You'd think that one would've brought the other but it hasn't eventuated ... yet. As for the managers that lasted a month, are you talking about Beretta or ROFL Fringer ?

Stick to what you're good at. Growing agricultural products and paying the bills. Don't act like a bitch when G4 is looking for a scape goat. We've gone through 4 managers since he's been in charge.

BostonThanatos, sometimes you just make me smile with your posts.

You can't compare Christiano Ronaldo or Messi to Maradona and players of that era. 50% of the goals they score today would not have happened back in that era because they would have been "professionally" fouled before they got anywhere near the goal. And if they did happen to score, they'd probably get an elbow to the face and a few kicks on the knee as a reward. Maybe even the occasional knee reconstruction if the defender was feeling generous. The tackling was brutal. I can't remember who it was (I think it was Cabrini but not sure), but one of those butcher defenders back in the Seria A said something like "In Italy, the man can go past the defender, or the ball, but not both". You had to earn a goal back then. Go look at the top goal scorers and they would rarely get over 20 goals in a season. I'm not saying Maradona is better, or that Christiano Ronaldo or Messi are better, I'm just saying it's not right to compare, because they play in completely different environments.

http://www.sport24.gr/Columns/Diamantopoulos/me-1-1-tha-htan-xeirotera.3915267.html Malista. Kai me 1-2 pali xirotera. Sounds like PAOK in the GSL most of the time. I wouldn't be surprised if we fall to 15th or 16th in the coming years. The power houses of Croatia and Romania are breathing down our necks. Who would've thunk it.