Bananas

The president of ours is merely learning to be as good as the president as yours. Next lesson will be, being related to the prime minister, followed by importation of drugs in the commercial shipping space, followed by how to keep postponing judicial trials. Delusional indeed. 30,000 tickets ? Not sure what this is in reference to.

At least it seems like we had a good performance, away from home and in Athens to boot. I expected to lose this game and worse, be played off the park. So that much is encouraging.

One day AEX will earn a title or a place in Europe that isn’t based on points deductions. When that day comes I will take my hat off.

Couldn’t care one iota if Abel leaves. The only thing that burns me is his high salary which he totally does not deserve. As for Ivic, not sure. There is still the mystery of why he left ... maybe Ivan pulled a gun out on him ha ha. Ivic as a coach was decent. Not sure if he’s got what it takes to win a title (now that Lucescu raised the bar). If it were up to me I’d be considering Garcia as the next manager.

One thing is for sure. Abel seems bereft if ideas. There is no way in a million years we would have had performances like that under Lucescu. What I don’t know and I suppose only time will tell, is if he has lost the dressing room. Do they really believe in his idea of how the game should be played ? Can he even read a game and formulate a basic strategy ?

Thank the lord games will be starting so we don’t have to read these pointless transfer rumours now that “journalists” will have something meaningful to write about.

If a foreign referee makes an error, players, managers and fans get frustrated but accept it, and forget about it 2 minutes later. In other words, they behave like normal human beings. If a Greek referee makes an error, players carry on like pork chops, managers too, even team officials and owners. Conspiracy theories begin and never end. But this is because the history of Greek football has sufficient examples of said corruption so it’s easy to just say “the referee was paid” or find a photo that is 20 years old where the referee is wearing a jersey supporting some team when he was teenager. To be fair, most Greek referees are either not up to scratch or just can’t be bothered with the drama. It’s easier to take the path of least resistance and just favour the team whose owner won’t F*** up your life. Given the standings in the league I don’t really care if we have Greek referees or not for the play offs. The only interest is who takes 2nd place but if you’re into conspiracy theories that much it’s going to AEK all the way. In general though, foreign referees all the way. The Greek mentality, when it comes to football, is much too volatile to handle using Greek referees. One genuine big mistake in a critical game and all he’ll can break loose. Heck, even guns can appear on the pitch. ? What I am interested in seeing is the general level of fitness and play of the team. Abel hasn’t really come to grips with the team. I’m hoping this is the beginning of a change that will see the team begin next season on the front foot.

His resume looks decent for whatever that's worth. I wonder if there is a Vieirinha connection given he was at Wolfsburg for a few years. Either way Branko out, there's the exit door. He hasn't been impressive at all. I still wish we had Michel but let's see what the future brings.

@Dutch Eagle this is hands down one of my favourite songs of all time.

This sounds ridiculous even for Olympiacos. They will argue what exactly ? The club we dislike was found guilty but the penalty was not to our satisfaction and instead we would like a penalty that is outside the current rules governing the game ? Is there an angle here I’m not seeing ? Any update on the EPO investigation into the Olympiacos matching fixing ? Ok, yep, I am joking.

I think PAOKTV is still there as a backup, just in case. This sounds like the clubs are trying to all get a discussion going. Although discussion, football and Greece doesn’t really make for a logical mix. If I was a betting man I’d say PAOKTV will be there for the following season, whenever that begins.

Taking bets on when the U.S. will clock up 1 million. Any takers ? On a serious note, are there any projections on where the number could end up in the U.S. ?

Thanks guys for the various news sources. Remember, if it's not pro-Trump, then it's probably run by rabid communists planning to overthrow our way of life.

I would’ve liked to have seen the play offs this season. Like most, initially I though what a terrible idea but in Greece apart from the top 5 or 6 teams there is no substantial fan base. 10 weeks of big games week after week definitely sounded interesting. Either way I’m not fussed so long as we don’t have that brain dead system we had a couple of seasons ago.

@Tzatziki who the hell knows. It sounds reasonable to me but people and media will spin it every which way. If I were a manager and I've just delivered a title after 35 years I wouldn't be impressed if decisions from the top were not going my way. Add to that a fat pay check so I can retire and it's just about time to call it a day. In general, I don't agree with the idea of managers overseeing transfers. It's way too dangerous and can completely destroy a squad. That's what your Technical Director is for. But if ever there was a case for a manager having more of a say regarding transfers, you'd think Lucescu would that person. Anyway, good luck to him. For me, he is a *BIG MANGA*. He came, he conquered, and now he bathes in dollar bills. Bravo tou.

It's just too early to decide anything and that applies to all the leagues in Europe including UEFA. The only decision really will be whether leagues will resume (eventually once this is over) or whether they will start the next season. I thought that given that the leagues were 3/4 completed they would just declare each team that is on top as winners and leave it at that but now I'm not so sure. It's just a guessing game at this stage.

Any good sites to get news from the U.S. ? The well-known ones like NY Times, WSJ, Washington Post all have pay walls.

You Yankees can't stand being 2nd in anything. Have to win the Gold Medal in everything. Even in the covid-19 count.

Thanks Mitsos. Please stay healthy to all my Aris enemies, so we can continue with the kazoura one day.

Yep the salaries are inc tax. So base salary + 45% tax. Having said that I believe the tax rules were changed recently in Greece and I recall it meant that the tax will be approximately halved. Are the salaries really that nowhere close to reality ? Maybe our budget is 10 million or 50 million ?

And I'd be surprised if he did. The Wernbloom experiment was a good idea in theory. By all accounts he was a beast of a player. It just didn't work out due to the injury.

First of all who is it that posted that ? Is that an official club statement ? I don't mind if the club chooses to go this route, but the fan base will need to accept that it'll be unlikely we will win the title. Possible but unlikely. When you look at the team last season, it was made up experienced players that Lucescu got the best out of. But importantly, they were well paid and we got the quality we paid for. Gone are the days of paying players 250K or 300K and expecting to win the title. All of a sudden we were paying 500K minimum and many players around 750K. A handful of players were making 1M plus. Lo and behold we won our first title in 34 years. You can't tell me budget didn't play a massive role. If we lower our budget too much we won't be challenging for the title. Then there is FFP rules. If this can't be avoided, then it is what it is. The budget will need to be lowered. As to how that's achieved time will tell. The obvious ones are Matos, Mauricio and Vieirinha all of whose contracts are expiring at the end of the season. I would like to resign Matos and Vieirinha (obviously!) but I don't know if they will want to have their salaries lowered. It's inconceivable they will find a better salary elsewhere so the club has that bargaining position on their side but never discount the power of ego. They may just get upset if they feel they are being undervalued or are unhappy with the proposed contract length. Vierinha is a special case I suppose but it's hard to justify his salary currently. Then again the role he played last season was enormous. As for Mauricio I think he will either have to accept a lower salary or leave. It's a shame because he was clearly our best midfielder (except when Oliveira was on loan) but since the injury he hasn't been the same. All three of them are not at the same level as last season. As for our budget, my rudimentary calculations place it at 25 million. This is based on figures from Football Manager. Not exact but good to get an approximation. One thing that stands out is that nearly everyone is overpaid based on their form and performance this season. To name a few, Paschalakis, Varela, Matos, Esiti, Mauricio, Wernbloom (ha ha), Biseswar, El Kaddouri, Stoch, Vieirinha, Jaba. Regardless of the reason why, they aren't playing to the level expected given their salaries. Note the figures below are inc tax. Another thing to consider is how this idea of lowering the budget can be implemented. Who will want to buy these players and will they be able to get better offers elsewhere ? I don't think so. I definitely agree we need a clean out but it needs to be measured. 1 Paschalakis 780,000 2 Zivkovic 260,000 3 Papadopoulos 10,800 4 Ingason 780,000 5 Varela 1,900,000 6 Crespo 762,000 7 Mihaj 260,000 8 Michailidis 25,100 9 Giannoulis 485,000 10 Rodrigo 520,000 11 Matos 1,000,000 12 Esiti 1,200,000 13 Mauricio 2,300,000 14 Wernbloom 2,500,000 15 Augusto 415,000 16 Tsingaras 5,800 17 Misic 722,000 18 Pelkas 884,000 19 Biseswar 1,300,000 20 El Kaddouri 1,400,000 21 Stoch 1,700,000 22 Lambrou 433,000 23 Jaba 1,000,000 24 Limnios 181,000 25 Vieirinha 2,400,000 26 Mystakidis 208,000 27 Gaitanidis 139,000 28 Swiderski 693,000 29 Akpom 1,400,000

I don't pretend to understand Yankee politics but what happened in the last few weeks ? Sanders was made out to be a shoo-in and Biden wasn't even on the map. Now all of a sudden Biden is the man. What has Biden done to change things up so suddenly ? And more importantly, are either of them capable of beating Trump ? Don't call me an idiot. You guys are the ones that have him as a president. ?

Agree paokarag4. At first I couldn't stomach the idea of the play offs but I think in hindsight given how few teams are competitive and have a decent fan base and budget it's a good thing overall. As for the league this season, I find it hard to believe the play offs will be played given what's happening with covid-19. I think the title will (and should) go to Olympiakos given they were 7 points clear at the end of the standard home and away season.

300 cases here in Australia. The numbers are increasing steadily and now the question remains are the measures taken so far going to be enough to stop the country going into lock down. The worst case scenario for the government is having the hospital system overwhelmed so they are definitely (but grudgingly) trying to make sure that doesn't happen. I guess we'll know more in the coming days and weeks. I leave you with an article that could've come from the middle ages. What can you say. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-14/church-religious-groups-say-coronavirus-cannot-infect-them/12055476