Bananas

They should pursue it if they want to stay true to their name. AEX AEX AEX. Let's see what comes of this. I'm not that fussed to be honest as I put our chances of qualifying to the CL group phase as 0.01% anyway.

Does anyone know the specifics concerning our situation with FFP ? How much do we need to makes on sales and/or reduce wages ? Are we even in breach right now and need do rectify it by a certain date ? Looking at our roster I can’t see many players who could be sold for more than a few million. Specifically Giannoulis “the youngster”, Limnios and Akpom. All the rest I can’t see serious money being handed over for them. Much to my dismay I learnt that Wernbloom’s contract still has another year to go.

Most unexpected. Not just the result but the manner of the win. It's not like we parked the bus and were outplayed. Football is strange when you consider our previous games in these play offs.

I was thinking Misic is our box to box, but yes, he's a level below Oliveira, or different rather. And now that he's injured it's moot anyhow. Other than him, that leaves Mauricio, who has checked out now mentally.

In Greece the fakelaki is mightiest of all. Savvidis is still working this out though. He’s a slow learner. Let’s see what the EPO kangaroo court brings. And how many people are assaulted and threatened along the way. The formula has precedent.

They just need to find a decent DM and the team will start playing 5x better. We're lacking up front but I believe that’s a confidence thing. If they can sort out the middle things will improve. We went from having Mauricio in stellar form coupled with Oliveira to having only Misic this season. Esiti and Augusto are lacking. Better to have kept Canas and Shakhov than these two. Who even knows what will happen with Misic.

We should take a leaf out of the book and try to win a title sta xartia. It seems to be a successful strategy.

This outcome is pretty crap. I just wanted it done and dusted. After all that basically it goes back to EPO. And now what’s worse we could get more points deductions next season ?! What a bourdelo.

Melbourne, Australia has gone back into lock down for 6 weeks. There has been a spike in the last 2 weeks or so and numbers started climbing little by little hitting over 100 new cases per day. Lock down begins Monday 11th. And then I look at figures from Texas, Florida and think, are those numbers real ? That can't be right. Just crazy.

Maybe so. Who knows how the players think. To be fair, if I was a decent player with no allegiance to PAOK the episode would make me think "one day when I'm out of here and playing in a normal league I won't have to put up with this crap". It must be disheartening. Side note, the roster is due for a clean out and shake up on many levels.

The problem is, we won a league (after 35 years) and that to Olympiacos is just *unacceptable*. Savvidis also asked for foreign referees and they are harder to bribe. Savvidis also payed off the tax liability (minus interest and penalties which he negotiated to be excluded, fair enough, business is business) unlike AEX. The Xanthi thing does have a bad smell to it, fair enough, but if that's the worst you got, that's not so bad. And we've been punished for it. Olympiacos only gets punished in an alternate universe. On a side note, hopefully Aris do get a decent president one day. That story about the gate money getting stolen still makes me laugh.

It's crazy how bad the team is at the moment. I'm sure management is regretting Abel's salary, it's the only thing stopping him from being fired. As for CL, forget it, and the way the team is currently, what's the point anyway. We'll struggle through EL qualifiers as it is if something doesn't change and quick. Management will either have to risk (and pray) Abel "works it out" or bite the bullet and pay him out. When you see a team playing this way, they've pretty much lost faith in the manager. They'll nod their head and do enough to not get benched but inside the head they're thinking "mate, you have no idea".

You can blame EPO, Marinakis, Melissanidis for our 7 point deduction and I guess we'll see what comes of that from CAS. But who can we blame for the poor showing of the team post the covid break ? I can accept the results against Olympiacos, they are a solid team that have got their balance right after being a bit all over the place last season. How can we go from playing a good game in the Cup to the last two performances against AEK and OFI ? I'm not talking about the results, but the way the team is being played off the park. Maybe it's as simple as we have no midfield since the injuries to Misic and Augusto but I don't think it's the simple. There is enough depth there to cover. This reminds of the team a few seasons back when you didn't know what you were going to get from week to week and half to half and we would be holding on for dear life at the end of games. Abel has a lot to answer for and if it wasn't for his large salary I think he'd be 100% gone.

That would be a bit brutal if true. He hasn’t impressed but at least he showed some tactical awareness in the cup game. To be fair, we are inferior to last season. The following are all lesser players (regardless of reason); Matos, Vieirinha, Varela, Mauricio, Biseswar. Add to that we have no real striker (I very much miss Prijovic getting those cheap goals). We also had Oliveira, the midfield was brutal. This year our midfield is fairly meek with the exception of Misic. There is a lot of work to do to rebuild the team. Abel has been too ideological and not practical but maybe now he gets it. So I don’t blame him entirely. Having said that I’m sure Lucescu would have done a better job. I’m all for replacing him with someone better but the truth is we’ve only had one top manager in the last seven seasons. I’d see how the play offs roll on and go from there. Which probably means he’s already been fired.

As in why didn't she try and run for the Dem nomination ?

As someone that understands little of US politics, I wonder why Nancy Pelosi didn’t try to go up against Trump. She’s the only one I’ve seen who seemed to rile him. As far as policies go, and them making an actual real difference to people, it seems both parties are short on ideas. At least I haven’t heard anything. Sure there are ideological differences and whoever gets in will control nominations of judges and that sort of thing. But in terms of changes “on the ground” does it matter if Trump or Biden wins ? Whoever wins, Wall St wins and everyone else seems not to. I find it strange that the Dems don’t go hard for traditional GOP states but say having a policy to invest serious dollars in some of them. You know, actually trying to improve their lives. I’m sure voters could be swayed that way. But I don’t see that, or maybe it’s not reported because it’s boring. Or maybe they don’t actually plan to to invest much, in which case, why the heck should the voters change their vote, or even bother voting. Or maybe that’s “socialist” thinking. Don’t care what anyone says, if you promise to build jobs in red neck towns, they’ll vote for you.

I’ll miss him. Sure he would change his opinion each week but I found him entertaining for the most part. He was definitely losing his mental faculties in the last few years and would struggle to remember player names. End of the day he made me laugh a lot. Also one of the few that can shut Raptopoulos up for one minute. Who can forget this. Legendary.

@paokarag4 fully agree with you about 3 in the midfield. Guilherme is hands down the best midfielder in Greece, class player. Exactly the sort of player we need. I don't see any way playing 2 in the middle we can contain them. It reminds me when Ivic was manager and we played AEK a few years back in Athens and got walloped 3-0 by them in the league (or play offs), and due to this, Ivic played 3 in the middle in the cup final (Canas, Cimirot, Shakhov). We'll find out if Abel is an idealist or not. Our problem is, who be our "Guilherme". Last season you could say Mauricio was that player, but he's been flat and out of sorts post injury.

Biden has dementia ... or not. What use is pushing it one way or the other on this forum going to change reality. Time will tell. Do we really think that someone who isn’t inclined to vote for Trump would do so based on this ? Key will be when they have their debates. Hopefully Biden can handle Trumps obnoxious and classless style and come out looking like a proper statesman. If not, then the Dems didn’t pick the right candidate. It amazes how divided the USA is and how no matter what some people will vote one way or the other. Loyalty to a political party is an exceedingly rare thing here in Australia. But I’m veering off topic now. @tantra129 a subscription to Grammarly might be in order. ?

That would imply he likes all the domestic teams equally or close to. Doesn't strike me as a fan of the north. Anyway, I've got some champs on ice ready for the CAS decision. One of us will be making a toast to "natural justice". ?

What's your problem @Pepito ? You sound kind of angry man. I know a bloke who has some fine liquor in an igloo but he won't give me the key. Maybe if you have a drink you'll chill out. As for Biden vs Bernie, speaking from Oz where we just get snippets, they both seem old and frail. If this is the *best* the Democrats can come up with to fight Trump, good luck to us all. To be fair, all major political parties work this way, that is to say, they focus on their internal politics and individuals worry about getting to the "top" instead of focusing on the best candidate. I'm sure the best candidate is someone I've never heard of. Anyone taking bets ? What are the odds of Biden vs Trump ?

Which team do you support Boxou ? I’m guessing it’s not PAOK.

To the AEXtzides, In any normal league in this Europe or the world for that matter, when Savvidis went all russian mafia, *HE* would've been punished for it. Not an entire team including players and fan base. No one said Savvidis shouldn't be punished severely. But I don't think any punishment he received would have made the rest of Greece happy. They wanted total punishment of an entire team and fan base. This only happens on a regular basis in Greece (as far as I'm aware) where point deductions are the norm. I suppose if you're not a PAOK fan the decision was superb. Add to that the fact the AEX players behaved atrociously towards the referee which was a leading cause of the whole fiasco. They would never have pulled that crap with a foreign referee. And then their laughter in the club rooms afterwards. Talk about taking the piss. And that's why you will always be AEX. The paper kings.

In real time it didn't look offside at all, and I guess that's why the *foreign* linesman and referee didn't notice it. If VAR was around I guess it would've been a different story. What do you do ... that's life sometimes.

Any idea how CAS works ? What I mean is, will the issue be resolved quickly and once their decision is made, it's done ? Reason I ask is, I've never heard of CAS actually overturning anything