Bananas

Are you saying Bajevic is too old now ? For my money, he's the best manager in Greece in the last 3 decades.

Very lucky. Maybe the invitation from Savvidis to Marinakis helped ? ;) Gotta say though, what is wrong with some of our supporters. Isn't lighting 500 flares enough of a fix ?

And ..... 3 ..... 2 ..... 1 ..... KABOOM.

Agree Blackhawk. It's not entirely Olsen's fault. But, the team just needs to be aware that opposition teams will try the same thing, and prepare/train for it. I know if I was the opposition manager, I'd try to expose the apparent weakness.

I'm not sold on Olsen, but for now I think he will suffice. If we were a serious title contender and him costing us points along the way would make the difference, I would be seriously worried. But we're not there yet. At least he has time to improve unlike say Itandje. Besides, at the end of the day, the quality of keeper we are asking for probably won't come to a team like PAOK. We can't get one "ready made". We need to make one, so to speak.

He's conceded like that before. He seems to have trouble judging if/when to come out. I'm pretty sure opposition teams are targeting that weakness.

We are "much concrete team" ~19:12 in the video. Tudor is scary when he talks! I wouldn't want to anger him, ha ha.

Kace is probably the first name you pen into your 11. It could be he's not 100% fit. Or Tudor is playing games to try and get an "edge", when he fully intends to play him. The only possibility that actually worries me is a contract renewal issue, but I'd suspect we would have heard something about that.

With the exception of a class CB, I don't really want any more signings. We need to sort our what signings we have now.

Since PAOK hasn't signed a deal with Nova, how can they "distribute" matches ? Can they just do it themselves, say on their website ?

Could this 4-3-3 "leak" to the press just be a ruse ? I see no sense in playing Bueno out wide. With his dribbling and skill, you want him in the middle so that if he creates space, he can have a shot on goal or play a nice through ball to someone who can pop it in. Out wide, he'll still be effective but I don't think as much. As a PAOK fan, I hope he gets played wide ... after seeing his nice finish the other week. ;)

A low voter turn out was to be expected. I was surprised by Golden Dawn. I thought they would do better. If they can't get votes while the country is being run by Germans and invaded by Muslims, when will they get votes. If the situation in Greece was replicated in Germany, their population would be going nuts. Their extreme right wing parties would do much better than what Golden Dawn have done. I suppose we Greeks just aren't fascists at heart. ;)

Nice post Che.

This fascination with left and right is part of the reason why Greece is such a broken country now. All it does is cause division and hatred. It is never productive ... not that I have seen. It is purely, at least in my eyes, a reason for one section of the population to persecute or steal from another section of the population. Or to feel better about themselves. Or to enrich or improve their position somehow. Labeling someone "left" or "right" makes it easier to f--k them over ... without feeling guilty that you've done the wrong thing. We Greeks are specialists at it. Grand Masters. The second I hear this left that right I almost just tune out. As for Tsipras, ideology when youthful is one thing, and practise in the real world is another. He's about as left as my left nut ... in practise. There is no left or right anymore. There is only "Ms. Merkel, is it all right if I can do this or that". Greece is now bearing the fruit of decades of incompetence.

I'd throw in Mystakidis for Pelkas. Deflate that little ego nice and early. Besides the game will be hectic in the first half. Second half, throw in Pelkas, Berbatov. Still got Jairo and Rodrigues as well.

Pana97, it is really hard to judge. And yes, it's generational. But statistics only give you part of the picture. I tell you this much with certainty. The 40 and 50 goals that Christiano and Messi bang in La Liga, no way that would happen in the old Serie A. Not even close. They would probably get half that, which is still crazy. Back then, you'd be lucky to have one or two players get more than 20 goals for the season. The defenders back then were defenders.

I'm pleased about Golasa. I thought it was odd that Tudor didn't want him in the team. He fit for the most part the Arnesen criteria of young and relatively cheap. I concluded he wasn't "hungry" enough. He was so so last year but I thought he should be given a second season to see how it played out. At least this way we'll know. Then again, maybe once Cimirot and Antonis get fit, that could be it for him. Might explain his attitude.

Ha! So what do you do with Pelkas now ? We have a big game against AEK coming up. Do you drop him to the bench to let him know "don't muck around" ?

He's definitely got much better vision and attacking instinct than Tziolis. He also gets into forward positions "naturally". The only thing that might work against him is his defensive game.

Antonis is no Kace. He's technical and quite composed. Good vision. I actually don't think he'll suit PAOK for games where you expect to be on the back foot against better opposition. If you want a player to run all day and "hack" the opposition, it's not him. We'll find out soon enough how he copes with the step up. Australia does not exist lol.

Pash, hopefully two things happen this season. 1) We extend Kace's contract. Do it already! 2) One of Chimirot, Sabo, Charisis, Antonis manages to take Tziolis spot in the 11. Sabo is playing fairly average at the moment, but he might just be trying to find his feet. Too early to judge him just yet. On a side note, is that now 2 games in a row that Olsen hasn't had a clanger ? Oh damn, I just jinxed him.

Agree about Brazilian Ronaldo. Before the Serie A defenders kicked him to death, he was truly scary. Just think Christiano x 2. I've never seen a striker cause defenders so much fear. Look at these tackles! Today nearly all reds, and they weren't even a yellow in this game. Or not even a free kick. People forget how bad the tackling used to be. ~1:23. ~3:53, love this one. The defender looks like he's doing Karate or something. ~5:48, another beauty. And he was given this treatment week in week out. Christiano or Messi ? Cannon fodder. I can't remember who it was, but a Juve defender back in day was being interviewed and he said something like "In Italy, the man can get past the defender, or the ball, but not both".

I only wish the Greek NT had a player like him. Best striker in the GSL by a margin.

Maybe we should be thankful that they only want to use Greece as a stopping point on their journey to Germany. I know it's a mess in Greece at the moment, but it could be worse. My fear is that at some point, all the countries bordering Greece will put up borders like Hungary. And then at that point, what happens ? If these refugees are given a choice of Greece or Turkey only, which would they select ?

I just hope he doesn't embarrass himself on the field.