Bananas

Intelligent they may be, but the likes of Papandreou and Karamanlis are "entitled". Or at least they feel they are. In what other country do we have control being passed down from father to son ? Sure it happens sometimes, but in Greece nepotism is an art form. Tsipras, as much as I disagree with a quite a few of his political beliefs, is a breath of fresh air. At least for now ....

The problem with Golden Dawn is that got violent very quickly. If they had a simple policy of tightening up the borders then that's a great policy. Instead, they went around beating people. Not the best look. What next, Greeks that don't agree with them ?

@ Che, has Greece actually sold islands ? Surely this can't be serious.

I used to play, but the last version I've played was FM 2008. Man, what a good game. And frustrating!!! Loved it, lol. Nea Bafra, maybe open up a new thread and post screen shots of the players ? I'd love to see the stats on them.

I'd like to Tzavellas go, but we first need to strengthen the squad. Salpi, just because he's been such a good servant to the club, I'd give him another season, but only off the bench and only if we need goals or it's a derby.

I find it hard to be angry with Syriza. Some of their ideas annoy me, even astound me, because in this day and age it can't work like that anymore. For proof they only need look back to the failures of the last 3 decades. But all in all, I just find them naive. As for ND/PASOK, I have a white-hot burning anger towards them, because they knew better. They are not naive and know how things work. But they didn't do anything about it. Posters here will say it was because there was too much resistance from the left. Bollocks. They were comfortable and happy to sit on the throne. As long as they got to eat lobster every night, what did they care. Just see Kostas Karamanlis for an example of a rat. Legally they may have not broken any laws, but morally and in my eyes, they are criminals of the highest order. They were in charge of the nation, and instead chose to line their own pockets. Bravo, enjoy your lobsters.

The rollbacks that Syriza just implemented, are merely a rollback to the way things were under ND and PASOK for decades. I don't agree with them since Greece needs to get its head out of the sand and compete in the real world, but it is what it is. The people can always vote ND at the next election if they're not happy with Syriza.

And Panos from the old site is missing too.

Spot on summary Che, except for the junky metaphor. Germany was also a junky in that German exporters benefited. German banks made loans which were used to buy German goods, so for a while there, it was all dandy. The bankers made their short term bonuses and profits, the exporters made sales, and the Greeks got what they wanted. I don't really have an objection to Germany "punishing" Greece per se, but it has to be a constructive punishment with a positive end goal. So far we've had 5 or so years of austerity with no end in sight. Greece has followed their instructions, and nothing has improved. Nothing will improve. Their is only one reasonable solution and that is, invest in Greece so it can grow, and as it grows Greece will be able to make increasing payments. However, politically that just won't wash. So, expect lots of can kicking. I must say, it surprises me when posters make comments that have a real hatred towards Syriza. I couldn't give two shits about Syriza. If a monkey was in the election vs ND and PASOK, I would have voted for the monkey. Syriza has only been destroying Greece for 3 months! ND and PASOK destroyed it for 3 decades!!! Syriza still has a ways to go before they are on their level. Having said that, below is my perception of Greek political parties, in various categories, marked out of 10. Comp = Competence to govern. Are they experienced in governing / realpolitik. Hono = Honesty/honour. Are their intentions honourable. Are they actually trying to help the country. This is inversely related to naivety. Will = Willingness to F*** the greek people. Couldn't give two shits about the country, so long as they are sitting on the throne. Comp Hono Will ---- ---- ---- PASOK/ND 8 1 10 SYRIZA 2 8 3 KKE 2 1 3 GOLDEN SHOWER 2 3 7

That's what you get for being a naughty boy.

I'm expecting PAO p*****es, but we'll see.

I agree but if I started to break it down into .5 it would make things less clear, so I elected to keep it simple. So, based on a 25 man squad we only need to make 15 or so above average signings .... Being realistic, if we can get a "3" rating GK, a 4 rating CB, and a 4 rating DM that can impose himself on the game and we're looking really good. Add Lucas into the mix for good measure. I don't think it's quite title winning material, but it's getting close.

Rate our team! Below I've rated our squad as I see it. Others who are lucky enough to watch more games could have a different opinion. Ratings 5 - Superb player. Almost impossible to replace. Example: Natcho. 4 - Excellent player. Hard to replace. Example: Noboa. Stoch (when he felt like playing). 3 - Good squad player. Not easily replaced. Example: Klaus. 2 - Decent squad player. Can be replaced fairly easily. 1 - For the tip. Player Position Age Rating Comment --------------- -------- --- ------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Glykos GK 28 2 Has done ok since breaking into the 1st team. Itandje GK 32 2 Has done ok recently without being exeptional. Skondras RB 25 3* Improved a lot this season. Cemented the RB position. Konstantinidis RB 20 2 Has improved considerably this season. One to watch next season. Kitsiou RB 21 2 Has regressed since being the first choice RB last season. Rat LB 33 3* Surprised me. Has done very well overall. Tzavellas LB 27 2 Aliti. Costa CB 33 2 Has pedigree. Needs to show it. Vitor CB 25 3* Still a 1st team choice when fit. Needs a reliable CB partner. Maduro DM 30 2 Time to go. Has pedigree but never delivered. Kace DM 21 3* The kid is only 21 and is a 1st team regular. Tziolis DM 30 2 Enigma. I think he still has a role in the team. Noboa CM 30 4** Expecting him to become our midfield general. Golasa CM 23 2 Shown glimpses but needs to show more. Mak AM 24 3* Fizzled towards the end of the season, but overall a great signing. Pereyra AM 27 3* Fizzled towards the end of the season, but overall a great signing. Koulouris FW 19 - Too early to judge. Papadopoulos FW 33 2 Has done quite well. Worth keeping as backup/rotation. Salpi FW 33 2 On the wane. I'd still keep him in the squad for morale. Klaus FW 26 3* Has age on his side. Expecting big things. Lucas FW 26 4** Playing in La Liga for a season can't hurt. Martens AM 30 2 Time to go. Has pedigree but never delivered.

@ pash, the 15M was in some article in sport24.gr about a month ago. It just had a breakdown of the revenue per club over the last few years, and how it's been affected due to the economy. I can't remember the exact number, but it was somewhere around 15M give or take.

Spot on Yiankos. As unlikely as it is that Olympiakos won't be in the CL next season, we have to play to get the 3 points anyway, just in case.

Yiankos, I agree with not 100% but 1000%. My problem is I'm trying to be realistic given our budget. Having said that, I agree that to be serious contenders for the title I'd basically select the best 11-13 players from the current squad and boot the rest, and replace them with Noboa quality players. Natcho is another level up again, excellent player. As for CL qualification, with our current squad, it's 95% certain we can't beat teams like Schalke or Metalist. They are just too strong. And, even if we somehow with the luck of the gods went through, we'd get smashed in the CL. Our biggest problem is our revenue and budget. PAOK only generates about $15M in revenue. It's nowhere near close enough to what we need. It needs to be double that at least, preferably closer to $40M or $50M. How they do that is another story! Maybe buy up all the souvlatzidika in Thessaloniki ?

What is required is signings that aren't just squad standard. You need above average. Noboa is such a player and hopefully we can get a couple more like him. Lucas would be great as well. I've watched him in a few games for Depor and all in all, he's done well. Again, he's an above average player compared to the rest of the PAOK squad. More than anything we need a DM that can impose himself on the pitch and can provide cover for the back. Garcia was the last player that could do, although towards the end he didn't have the legs for it. None of our current DM's can do that. Get a similar CB and all of a sudden your midfielders can go forward freely without having to be scared of constantly backtracking to not concede goals. Fix the spine and things will begin to fall into place.

Guys, maybe you're jumping the gun a little. It's still early days. He hasn't resigned yet, and I'm sure even if he did, he'd still try to install a puppet president that he can control. Having said all that, the previous posts on this page are piss funny and I couldn't stop laughing. Gotta love those pictures of Melissanidis with a cigar. Ha ha.

Have to agree with Yiankos. I'll be happy to see the back of Maduro. Aside from a few good games here and there, he's been a disappointment. And, given his pedigree, I was expecting big things (along with Maartens).

Great to see some more posters coming back.

My brother went to the Olympiakos vs Melbourne Victory game and he's not an Oly supporter. Just wanted to watch a greek team live. He was very impressed with Mirallas and quote "the game was over in 15 minutes and after that it was as if Oly didn't want to embarrass them. The class difference was very noticeable."

The bigger question is why does it have to get to this point in the first place ? If EPO had implemented some fairly basic things over the years (electronic tickets/cameras/life bans) then maybe Kontonis wouldn't need to be so radical ? Having said that, I don't know enough about the background of all this. I'm sure there is more to it being Greece.

Welcome back Dutch Eagle. Good to see some more PAOK posters back.

Welcome back italos :)

What Greece should be doing even though it goes against principals, is skewing the play field away from workers towards company interests. The reason ? We need jobs! It's a lot better to be making 600 Euros a week then zero. Get the companies in, and 5 or 10 years from now when things are better, you can start to roll back the play field towards worker interests. As long as it's balanced (I know, ha ha) then everyone wins. The Greek government should be seeking to open up more mines, not less. Having said all that, I don't really know much about the aforementioned mine. Is it causing massive pollution ? Are Greece's mining standards as eco-frienldly as Chinas ?