Bananas

Arsenal plays tough teams week in week out. Month in month out. Year in year out. Olympiakos plays village teams and isn't toughened. They're not ... match fit so to speak. Not mentally prepared. When every game you play is like a training session and you only play one real game every month or so, well, it's not ideal. All the "big" Greek teams suffer from the same problem.

Is there something wrong with the water in Thessaloniki ?

I freaking hope so man!

I've asked before but didn't get a response. Did we have clause where if he gets sold, we get a percentage of the next sale ? If not, we deserve what we get. Outside of the top players for Barcelona and Real Madrid, he's the next top scorer in the league. It would be funny if Deportivo sold him for a king's ransom ...

I only saw from around the 70th minute. We were solid and definitely the better side.

This is what I find frustrating. We let go of the accelerator. Instead of keeping up the pressure we sit back and concede space. Why even allow them to attack ?

Well, that was coming. We had entered the box half a dozen times in 2 minutes. Good work.

How cool is this! http://www.sport24.gr/football/omades/Paok/monopoly-paok.3800259.html

The 6th goal by Sabo was very good. I can see why pash has a crush on Mystakidis. The kid has got a nice smile on him.

We think he was a good signing. Berbatov himself doesn't seem to agree. ;)

+100 likes. Whether Berbatov leaves or not isn't significant in terms of goals or position on the ladder. His value to the team was always from a marketing perspective. My hope for this season was that he would bang in a few goals and teach some of the younger players how to be composed and professional ... the irony. In addition, I hoped that he would lift morale in general. It's not every day you get to have someone like Berbatov in your squad. The ideal scenario was that although PAOK was a step down for him, he would enjoy his football and just have a memorable time. I didn't expect him to stay longer than the one season, but I hoped he would look back and say he enjoyed his time at PAOK and didn't regret it. This also could have helped in signing "big" players in the future. Unfortunately, it's not looking good. It's a shame.

I don't have time to thank the player that did 95% of the work providing the assist. I need all my mental faculties to show off my latest goal celebration routine ...

I also forgot to mention Vellios.

In the GSL whether you come 2nd or 5th it's the same thing. When was the last time that the team that finished 2nd (post play-offs) got through to the CL ? The opponents to get through to the CL Group Stage, are too strong. If PAOK tried 10 years in a row, they'd get through once, with a truck load of luck. Their best chance was against a very weak Schalke and PAOK couldn't beat them. My point being, if you're going to spend, you have to spend big, and go for the title or not at all. There is no point spending 5 or 10 million, and you're still 2 classes behind Olympiakos. Financially, it makes no sense. And now that direct qualification is going to disappear even for the title winner, it makes even less sense. If Savvidis was to going to spend big on a squad, and by that I mean 3 years of 10+ million in transfers he should've have done it when he came in 3 years ago. Now that Greece's coefficient has dropped so low, forget it, it's too late. Having said that I still don't believe there is anything we could offer Natkho to come. As for the midfield, yes, it's lacking in quality but it is what it is. There is no simple fix I can see right now. I've said this before many times, the class of player required, would not come to PAOK. We have to "make" such a player(s).

Not going to happen Reaper. Natkho is on I think 2 million as it is. So what would we have to offer to get him ? 3 wouldn't do it. It would have to be 4, at least. And even then it isn't enough. We need 3 players of that quality. Natkho alone wouldn't be enough. And honestly, this is just my opinion, I think even if we offered him 5 million he'd still decline. Why would he want to play in Greece ? To do what you are saying, PAOK's player wage budget would need to be 2x to 3x what it is now.

I've never personally liked the precedent of selecting *star* players that are out of form, purely because of who they've played for or play for. Mitrogoal out. Klaus out. Giannou in. If the *star* players don't like it, *sta*****a* mou.

Why the hell not. It's not like this season was meant to be anything but a rebuilding year. I'd like to see him get 3 or 4 games to see how the kid copes with the GSL.

When Mak or Rodrigues aren't firing the team suffers. Added to that when sides park the bus, these guys have less space to work with. That's when you need players that can play that through ball that can split a defence. Pelkas is getting there, but there is a long way to go. The team definitely "clicks" a little better when he's playing in the hole. Up front though, there is nothing. No one to play the ball to. Right now, if Klaus and Berbatov were to leave the club, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Both are being selected purely on reputation. If they were young kids, they'd be sent out on loan. When Berbatov was signed, I was hoping he could play that number 10 role. He has the required technical attributes, and then some. He should be teaching Pelkas how it's done, but this is not how it's played out. Honestly, right now, I'd be playing Pelkas as the number 10 and pick someone from the youth to play as the number 9. Klaus and Berbatov I'd probably make the team clothing shoppers. They dress kind of snazzy.

Contrary to popular belief, PAOK were not favourites to get out of this group. Krasnodar are a better side, and it shows in the results. If you're thinking, who the hell is Krasnodar, well I can tell you the rest of Europe probably thinks the same thing about Greek teams ... in general, Olympiakos possibly excepted. Having said that, PAOK have been poor overall, and regardless of getting out of the group or not, should be beating teams like Qabala with ease, both home and away. Qabala, the Greek giant killers!

Thanks for link. Only caught the last 15 minutes. I saw 5 chances and 3 of them were by Tziolis, so that kind of sums up what little I saw. We weren't terrible, but we are lacking presence up front. At least we got 1 co-efficient point ....

Seriously, it's 2015, and we sit here trying to jump threw burning f--king hoops just to catch a shitty stream to watch a shitty game that a shitty standard. Ah F*** off.

Yep, out.

Any streams ?

400K or 500K, he's worth it. We should decrease Klaus's wage by 300K to pay Kace.

I suspect he was seduced by Savvidis, or should I say courted. Decent money, close to home, getting towards the end of his career. And Thessaloniki isn't the worst place to be based in. So even though I was amazed that we got him, at least it kind of makes sense. He also looked genuinely happy when he was introduced to the club that day. At that point, he probably thought, hey, it's not so bad. Now that he's seen the rabble that the GSL is, and the way Greek fans are animals e.g. harassing players, trashing their cars, threatening them, plus the scenes he would have seen in Athens, it wouldn't surprise me if he is thinking of leaving. Can you blame him ? He's played in proper leagues that are civilised. He doesn't need to put up with or see this sort of rubbish. Regardless of the standard of the GSL (he knew he would be coming down a level or seven), if he is to leave, it's the social side of the game, the behaviour of fans, media, presidents, police, MAT, that will drive away.