Bananas

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 ?

As long as Greeks believe in this left right crap, the country will get nowhere. Maybe that meant something during the civil war, maybe then meant something in the 60's and during the Junta days, but now it should all be forgotten. It's just not productive. It's vindictive and just another way to scam the system and by inference the nation and the people. People in Greece will know for example that a mayor is corrupt, and instead of seeking to have him brought to justice, will think of ways to benefit from his corruption! I realise this is a generalization, but as a general rule, it's truer in Greece than in other nations. Every country has it, that when a certain party gets elected, they pick their favourites as judges, diplomats, cushy jobs etc, but it can and should only go so far. In Greece, it's always been extreme. And hence the hate continues. In Australia if you're hard core political, people look at you like you're a fruit loop. Which isn't a bad thing. Q) What's the greek word for meritocracy ? A) Fakelo.

I suppose what we need to ask is why did the generals feel the need to form the dictatorship ? Was Greece really under threat of becoming communist or did the generals just do it because they could ? Could they have achieved what they wanted through democratic means ? Who backed them ? And why ? Maybe their intentions were honorable initially, but having good intentions and keeping them once in power are two very very different beasts. Either way, it was a black period for Greece.

Ha, it wasn't all bad. I'm sure there were thousands in a similar position and his day to day life was just fine. It was not being able to plan ahead and being scared of what tomorrow would bring that did his head in. All he wanted was a "fair go", and he wasn't getting that. That was one of the problems in Greece. I don't know if it's better now, but back then being "left" or "right" just meant it was an opportunity for one group of people to benefit at the expense of others. What's the greek word for meritocracy ?

As long as Greece complies with what the EU wants, which they have been doing, the EU couldn't care less. I realize Greece is dragging its feet on reforms that the EU wants, but that is all fluff. It's a distraction. Ultimately, what does any creditor wants ? They want their money back, preferably on their terms. End of story. ND was doing that, again dragging their feet but still eventually doing what the EU wanted for the most part. Applause all round and pats on the back to those ND fellas, bravo. Syriza, having made the promise to the people to "end the austerity" (m*****es) is now stuck in the middle. The EU will not negotiate easily. They hold all the cards, or at least they think they do. They want their money back, and are not interested in growing the Greek economy or any other option put on the table. Syriza need to work out what they stand for. Because their idea of asking the EU politely for better terms is farcical. Realpolitik doesn't work that way. They have two options :- - give the EU what they want. In which case it's like we voted for PASOK or ND. Not much difference. - play the game of chicken to the end. Take the default to the last minute and see if the EU gives in or not. If they do give in, they'll get what they want ie. better terms. If not, well we're out of the Euro and all hell breaks loose .... It's a risky game.

Great perspectives so far everyone. Were there still communist guerrillas in the mountains in the 60's ? From my fathers perspective, his family background was communist. Specifically, his father (my grandfather) was a communist. Most of his uncles and other extended family not so sure, but if they were, they weren't militant. My grandfather, for his participation (and this is the risk you take) paid with his life. I don't know the exact details of why he was a communist and why/how he was killed. It happened when my father was 7 years old and he doesn't like to talk about it, which is fair enough. For his part, my father was harassed around this time (1967). He would be working somewhere for a while, and then someone would come over and say "you're a communist". He'd correct them and say "My father was a communist. I'm not, and don't care for politics". Not that it helped much. He would be out the door. Seeing as this wasn't working out, his last venture was to work for himself. He had a business in Thessaloniki making coffees. One day a police officer came over and commented how it was busy and doing well. He visited again and offered to buy the business. My father declined. A few weeks after that he visited again, and sat in the corner for a while. My father came over and the officer said "we need to have a chat". Basically he said, sell me the business at such a price, or I'll make your life a living hell you communist scum. And so, that's how my father came to be in Australia. He'd had enough.

That's just a nice way of saying we haven't found a replacement yet. There was in article on sport24.gr where it said Savvidis would prefer someone that can speak Russian. Kind of comical ....

I think our top priority should be finding a replacement for Vryzas. Then maybe try and get a manager who can last longer than half a season.

That's odd. I thought he was doing all right based on the fact that he's started a lot of games this season.

What's the issue with Papagiannopoulos ? Is he good enough or is he not ?

What are the statistics on the number of immigrants currently in Greede ?

We just want to go in with good form. Even though we're still shaky since our loss at PAO we're 3-1-1. PAO is 1-1-3.

On the on going "negotiations", at least Varoufakis is putting up a good fight. He speaks with dignity and is pushing hard for the best solution for Greece. He probably won't win, he doesn't have much to negotiate ate with, but at least he's trying his damn best and you know he gives a s%$#!. ND and PASOK would have sold us all for some silver. Correction, they already did. They are a bunch of sell outs and pussies and people have the audacity to slag off Varoufakis. spare me.

Is it illegal to protest in Greece ?

+1 for Vikings.

I don't want Maartens or Maduro. They had their time and their chance. Time to just call it a day.