Bananas

PAOK's modus operandi needs to change. To his credit, Savvidis has paid the debt (massive achievement) and pays the players on time (also a massive achievement for PAOK). But on the football pitch, we've gone nowhere or backwards. Hopefully this new TD can give the club some direction because we definitely need it. Our usual approach each year is to try to sign some decent quality players. Of course, if they are decent quality why would they want to come to PAOK ? So, as the transfer deadline approaches, we lower our standards, and then in the end I think we just make signings for the sake of it. Or, we do the classic PAOK and sign a player from a team we played who happened to have a good game. My hope is that the new TD can actually judge the worth of a player ... which is always subjective ... and can actually try and build a team that is structured. During the Savvidis era, we've had 3 managers (Donis, Stefens and Anastasiadis) who have all failed and been given the boot early. That's problem number one to fix. Problem number two is to stop with all the mediocre transfers, but I'm not optimistic we can do that. We seem to just transfer players for the sake of it, even though they aren't a significant improvement on what we already have. If you look at our signings in the last 3 years we have :- 2012/2013 ------------- Vukic - super sub. Would have loved to have had this guy in his prime. Katsouranis, Schildenfeld, Lawrence - "decent" signings. They weren't terrible most of the time. Jacobo, Itandje - why bother ? Not good enough. Camara, Oliseh, Khumalo, Vivian - lol. 2013/2014 ------------- Stoch, Insuarralde, Natcho - all decent players but why bother ? Lucas - good signing. We finally have a good signing and he's 26 years old, and he doesn't want to play for us, and he's doing well in La Liga. Sigh. Skondras - good signing. Vitor - good signing. Tzavellas, Tziolis - seemed like a good at the time. Maduro, Martens, Spyropoulos, Lopez, Ninis, Necid, Hoesen - lol. 2014/2015 ------------- Mak, Rat, Pereyra - good signings. Golasa - still young. Noboa, Costa - time will tell. So, that's it. We have about 5 good signings in the last 3 years. All the rest were either fails or players on loan that would've left anyway. We need to do better.

I love Lino. The guy is a legend. But if we sign him, I'm going to boycott the team for a year.

Can't say I'm surprised. PAO is an ok team, but we are much worse. Disjointed and unbalanced. Looking forward to losing in Athens.

I agree with you 100% that he has a right to be angry, but the way he did it was a unprofessional. This sort of thing should be done behind closed doors not on the pitch. But, at least it was funny ;)

Sad to say but I expect a draw, or at best, an uninspiring 1 goal win where we ride our luck.

Maybe his style resonates with Yanks where a lot of the sports in the US are all about statistics ? What a lot of people don't grasp is that it doesn't matter if you're the best football genius in the world, if the players don't listen to you, it doesn't mean anything. If Rogers has lost the players (and it does seem that way) then it's over.

Oh js1000 you optimist you!

Ante, might as well have a laugh about Brendan Rogers.

At the end of the day, was Greece in a better position before the Euro, say in the 1990's or now ? That is the most important question. There is no reason why Greece couldn't return to an economy of that level after a Grexit. If that's the best they can do due to their crazy labour laws, left right crazy politics (which as Che pointed out is all such a load of s%$#!, I can't believe anyone believes in that crap these days), people taking 10 years (lol) to finish their degrees, then so be it. That's as far as the Greek economy can go. If they want to do better, then they'll have to do it off their own bat, but at least they'll have done it themselves (or not), as opposed to having EU technocrats governing the country.

Pfft, never gonna happen. The economic repercussions would be too severe for the EU and worse, the loss of reputation (in their eyes) would hurt them so bad they'd be sulking about it for years. The sort of capitulation Germany wants won't happen. They need to be a bit more creative if they want to sell more austerity to the greek people. My money is on a 3rd bailout and let the next party in power deal with the problem.

Oh ye of little faith. Tha stiloume ton Garcia tora pou girise kai tha ton piasei apo ton afti. Tha erthi kai tha kanei stifteli kiolas ;)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Have to agree Yiankos. It's amateur hour and something you expect at the local village, not a team that aspires to be in the "top 20" teams in Europe as Savvidis stated.

PAOK specialises in signing pensioners.

I've been watching him through out the year and he's just been getting better and better. The first half of the season the injuries just killed him and he couldn't string games together. From the new year onwards he's been playing and doing well. He's been playing for the most part as a number 10 just behind the striker which seems to suit him. If we can get him back to PAOK and playing at a similar standard it would be great.

Entaxi, no toys but no German boot stuck permanently in our back side either. Irlandos has hit the nail on the head. We need our own currency back. If the EU was run properly ie. as a union for the benefit of all countries, then maybe it could work, but the way it's run is just plain wrong. Not flexible enough and as long as the core is all right, to hell with the rest.

Podemos made significant gains in local elections in Spain. Could Syriza have another radical left wing party that they could par-tay with ? Merkel, Schauble and Co. must be wondering how they can be so right and everyone else is so so wrong.

Very good article. A bit long but well worth the read. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/magazine/a-finance-minister-fit-for-a-greek-tragedy.html?_r=0

Nothing to worry about. Just put a bet on us conceding at least one stupid goal. It's a sure bet ;)

Yes and no gyros. "They" are to blame but who are "they" ? You can say the same thing about the US and their housing bubble. Sometimes a problem or situation gets so out of hand that no one person can tackle it. Here in "rich" Australia they had a mining boom and the government spent like crazy. They knew that revenue wouldn't be indefinite, but they locked in spending programs that "assumed" they would. You know, it makes voters happy. Now that revenue is down Australia has a deficit of roughly 50 billion and at best won't balance the budget for 5 to 10 years. The current government tried to do something about it, but they did it in a half assed way and their popularity sunk, so now they have backed down and aren't tackling the problem. Reminiscent of Greece ? Everyone knows there is a problem. Revenue won't go up because the current government is generally anti-tax increases, and spending won't go down because they don't want to lose the next election. Reminiscent of Greece ? You say it won't be pretty. I tell you it already isn't pretty, but at least they can make a nice Gyros ;)

Have to agree. If they were so unhappy with him, why did they start him in 30+ games ? I suppose they thought this season was a write-off and that "he'll do" for now with the intent of rebuilding next season. Either way, Stafylidis got a lot of games under his belt in a competitive and physical league so for him in terms of his development it was a good season.

Gyros, we almost already are the North Korea of Europe. 25% reduction in GDP thanks to the EU's policies/medicine is not exactly an economic miracle. They helped organise and gave us the 1st bailout deal. Didn't work. Then a 2nd, which also hasn't worked. Give it time and there will be talk of a 3rd deal, although I suspect the EU is hanging on in the hope of a change of government so that they have someone more malleable to deal with. Ultimately, they want what they want and don't care how they get it. If you want a Greek government that just does exactly what the EU says, then why even have governments anymore ... which incidentally the EU would love. The EU is not interested and does not care if Greece has unemployment of 99% as long as they get their money. Which is all well and good, except the EU has become this schizophrenic entity. The entire purpose and reason for the existence of the EU was to unify Europe. Instead, their policies since 2008 are doing the opposite. They are not playing the game for the benefit of Europe but generally for the benefit of the financial elite. And now, that Greece is pushing back and saying there needs to be a better way, they get all pissy. I can understand their point of view, why should they listen to a people who are fat, lazy and lying thieves ? The audacity! And yes, that is how a lot of the shallow media portrays Greece. The EU is becoming a tyrant, and you can see the results all over Europe. As to what the best strategy is to get the best possible deal for Greece, I actually think Greece is doing the best thing. The end game hasn't been decided yet. Our options are comply and face at least 20+ years of the same or worse than now, or fight back. I'd rather die standing up than on my knees.

The problem Original 21, is that you're being logical, and PAOK doesn't work like that. We like to do things backwards ;) Let's see what happens. If our selection of a TD is as successful as what we have been at picking managers, lord help us.

Fine, so we pay back the IMF the $2 billion. We just don't have to pay back the other $300 or so billion to the other creditors ;)

Greece got away with this payment and they just managed it. The repayment schedule however in the upcoming months is eye watering. There is zero chance of making the payments without additional liquidity from the EU. I can see a 3rd bailout agreement as a distinct possibility. It will mean the EU won't have to worry about Greece for a couple of years and they get to kick the can down the road once again. I did like Varoufakis statement that he wished we never entered into using the Euro although he did also say that trying to exit would be catastrophic. Having said that, catastrophic for whom ? The Greek people ? They don't have much to lose anyway and are emptying their bank accounts anyway. I still believe that going back to our own currency is the only real long term structural solution but Germany and the EU would go into hyper drive mode to make life as difficult as possible for Greece. That is the really scary reality in my eyes. If Greece left the Euro and managed to succeed it would be bad news for the EU and they certainty don't want that.