Bananas

Yiasou paokarag4. Great to see another PAOK poster find his way here from the old gs site. I think most of the posters from the gs forum are here. Who else is "lost" ?

I'd almost rather we stick with what we have rather than sign a player for the sake of it. The reason being that it will force Tudor to play the players we have, so we can truly see what they can offer. Hypothetically, if we had a lot of strikers, do you think we would have got to see Lucas or Mak play up front ? And yet, seeing them play there was an eye opener. Likewise with Pelkas. If Pereyra hadn't acted like an idiot, maybe Pelkas would not have gotten the opportunity to show what he can do. It's food for thought.

What's PAOK holding out for ? And how much dollars do they lose by not signing on ?

Agree, all of those players can play the role if required. It will be interesting to see how all the new signings develop as the year progresses. We need more than anything to find a way to unlock stubborn opposition who defend deep. I'm liking that the squad is young and full of potential.

Ha! And here I was worrying about the transfer of another has been. Not to worry, we still have ... who do we have ? It's funny, in previous seasons we never had enough wingers, now we are lacking strikers.

We are still lacking in the number 10 position. Only really have Pelkas there. So if Pereyra wasn't an idiot, he probably would have played on the weekend just behind the striker. What do you guys make of these Toivonen rumours ? Do you think he's the real deal ? I've had my fill of "quality" loan players and players that used to be good (Maartens, Maduro etc) that can't do it anymore.

I don't buy the Olympiakos rumours. Pereyra and his manager must know that we would never sell him to Olympiakos. Maybe before Savvidis when we couldn't even afford wages, but it's not like that anymore. PAO realistically would be a side grade for him, but again that isn't going to happen. I suppose it's possible his manager encouraged him to behave like this to force a transfer, but that only makes sense if he wanted to play outside Greece. Seeing as no team has made a formal enquiry (as far as I know) I think it's purely a case of he cracked the sads when he got fined at the training session. He then dug his heels in, and the rest is history. I'm sure if he could go back and undo the incident, he would.

Because he wants to play at any club he can right now. And PAO from his perspective isn't a bad option at all. Unfortunately, he got on the wrong side of Tudor when he came late to one of the first training sessions and was fined. The amount was minor, but he refused to apologise and pay the fine. And now, it's too late to fix it. Even if he wants to play for PAOK, Tudor has stated he doesn't want him. Even if Tudor changed his mind, and said he can come back, he'll look like a tool for accepting a player back that has been belligerent for over month now. The situation is as they say, untenable. Regardless, I'll be surprised if PAOK let him go to PAO.

Well, I don't know what to tell you then. I'm going to make an appointment with an optometrist tomorrow. Better nip this in the bud. Can't have my eye sight going on me. I need it to read quality posts on this forum. And for the record, I watch 4 games a year, not 3. Sheez!

A sample size of 3 from the brains trust, all irrelevant. Because in those 3 pics, the players actually chest the ball with technique, and critically, the ball hits the chest. As for Durmaz, the ball hit parts of his body, but the chest was not one of them. Have you no eyes to see with ? The ball smacks him in the face, then comes off his biceps. You should write a thesis, "How to chest the ball - By Reaper the Moderator". Step 1, use face to control ball ...

Skase Amerikanaki me tin grinia sou!

This is kind of what the hand ball looked like.

The thing that is really really really stupid with Olympiakos is that they don't need help from the referees. They would probably win the league even if referee decisions went say 40-60 against them. They don't need to do this crap. They sully their own name. Marinakis wants his cake and to eat it too. I just realised that's pretty funny, lol. It's like he can't handle the pressure of winning the league on fair terms, which I believe they would do anyway. It's just that it seems he wants to win it comfortably, because his heart can't take the pressure of not winning the league with 6 rounds to go. Too many bougatses will do that. Has their been any admission of a mistake from the referee ? That would at least be fair of him to admit an error was made. I could accept it. Then again, he did have a great unobstructed view.

PAOK is an unknown quantity this year and are rebuilding. The starters in the 11 this week that also played last season were Tzevallas, Vitor, Costa and Mak. Everyone else is either a new transfer or a kid come back from loan. Having said that, I expect PAOK to be completely out of the title race by around round 10, if not earlier. They still have much work to do to integrate all these new signings.

Just saw the 1st goal. 100% hand ball. What makes it silly is that the referee had a superb view of it. Who chests a ball with their arms pointing forwards like that ? Like he's trying to trap the ball. It's football, not basketball. What makes this even more farcical, is that the ball hits his left arm first, then his chest, then his other arm. Arxisame me tis m*****es.

But ... but ... Australia does not exist.

Thanks Blackhawk. It would be nice if at some point a testimonial/charity match is organised. If anyone deserves it, it's Salpi.

Talk about unlucky. I am expecting good things from this player.

We don't really know what's going on behind the scenes, but this decision seems both stupid and disrespectful. Maybe Salpi pushed for it because he wanted to be a starter, I don't really know. I get that Salpi is past his best, but is PAOK overflowing strikers ? We have one striker, Klaus, and he hasn't been in form for 6 months. Other than that, there is no one. So what would it hurt to have Salpi in the squad as a backup option off the bench ? And you'd think that considering the loyalty he's had to the club, they could have the decency to axe him at the beginning of the season. There is barely a week left until the transfer season ends. Timing seems poor.

Sounds like the team was snoozing, apart from Jairo.

I'm liking the 3-5-2. Having 3 at the back is making up for the fact that our defense has been shaky for a long time. There will be times when it's not necessary or we don't have the personnel, but for now, I'm happy to have it as our "default" formation.

Definitely. As for the new guys, not sure who is eligible to play, but whoever is, should play.

Realistically, assuming you deliberately don't field weak teams on purpose to rest the players for the league, I would expect PAO doesn't lose every match. For each win it's 200K, each draw 100K. If you win the group, another 400K, runner up 200K. Adding all of the prize money up together with TV and stadium revenue for the matches, and you could be looking at 3M to 4M easy. For a club that isn't flush with cash, that's a significant amount. I agree what you want is the CL money, but realistically, how on earth are PAOK, PAO or AEK going to win the title ? I just don't see it happening, although it would be nice to see a different team win the title for the first time in 187,000 years. So, it's a case of, take the EL semi-seriously and get 3M or 4M, or take the gamble, and maybe if all the stars align (and there are lots of stars that need to align) you get the CL spot. It's a big gamble. I get that if PAO were in serious title contention, might rest players vs the EL, but I don't buy not taking this qualification game seriously. It's as simple as "here is a team that is inferior to you, if you beat them, I'll give you 2.5M Euros". Who wouldn't take up that offer ?

What's that avatar Tantra ?

From a financial perspective, getting into the EL Group Stages is not negotiable. It must happen. Just getting there gets you 1.3M Euros. TV Revenue plus a sold out stadium for 3 home games and you're looking at even more. Even if you lose every game in the EL Group Stage, you have to get there.