Bananas

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.

The clubs budgets are for all intents and purposes similar. The truth is Anderlecht are worthy opponents and may very well go through to the next round of the EL. They are not some easy beat club. Should be an interesting game in Greece.

Maybe as long as the orders keep coming in, they keep making them ? Who knows.