Bananas

Maybe we should give the title to Olympiakos ? https://www.contra.gr/podosfairo/olympiakos-megalytero-antipalo-paok-eayto.7453030.html?utm_source=Sport24&utm_medium=BestofNetwork_home&utm_campaign=24MediaWidget&utm_term=Pos4 It's articles like this you wonder if the author was having a slow day or knows nothing about football. Possibly both. I saw Olympiakos kakare their pantelonia in Toumba and play like little girls. Nothing about that in the article. Or the fact that Olympiakos is a one man team. Heaven forbid if Fortounis gets injured or sold.

David Beckham's love child ?

Korakaki for president!

His career has been on a downward spiral for a while now. Signings like these ring alarm bells for me.

And the winner for signing of the year goes to ... drumroll ... Varela. Considering we all thought he was leaving, this has been the *BEST* news. Not sure about Ismael Silva. https://www.transfermarkt.com/ismael-silva/profil/spieler/253734 says he's a CM so I suppose he's a replacement for Shakhov ? Only a lot shorter. He will also take up one of the 5 non-EU slots.

That's just great. I suppose Olympiacos will be happy with the play-off system. Will be curious to see what each of the clubs "officially" has to say about the play-off system. As for the Cup Groups being eliminated, I was one of the few on this forum that liked this system. It wasn't meant to benefit the big clubs. It was meant to give the small teams some extra interest and a big game where they can cash in some dollars and just have some interest.

A round table perhaps, with Melissanidis, Marinakis and Alafouzos also. They can all brain storm and impress us with their ideas while we salute them from sheer admiration.

I'm actually ok with signing Malezas again for one more season. Locker room cohesion is such a big factor in creating a winning mentality. Henrique I'm ok with. I think he provides ... enough. Regarding all the rest of our players whose contracts are expiring (Canas, Shakhov) it all comes down to what the club wants to achieve. If they want a team that can go into the CL and not be bashed around, we need 3 to 4 "Oliveira" quality signings. If instead the club wants a team that can win the title, the squad we have is mostly sufficient to do that, more or less. I'm sure if we can sign these "Oliveira" quality signings at a reasonable cost, we will. But as always, attracting players to Greece is not easy.

I'm spewing about Stafylidis. He would've been the perfect signing. Given some tweets from Savvidis Jr. earlier in the season, I felt like this was a formality. I always felt we had no chance in previous seasons because we were never even close in the running to win the title, and CL football was never going to happen. But given the season we've had, and the fact he had hardly played this season, I really thought we were going to sign him. Adding another Greek to the squad and a PAOK boy made it all the more agreeable. Oh well, it is what it is. Maybe we just sign another Brazilian.

I "feel" like AEK has every right to find out why the referees were switched. If there was a valid reason, fair enough, and if not, then it's fair to criticize the referees. But this also begs the question, does the referees owe AEK an explanation ? It could be the case for all we know, that the referees are allowed to do this, without having to provide an explanation! I think it's fair to say that if Greek referees were involved it would definitely have a bad smell to it, and we would all be thinking of conspiracies. But seeing as high calibre foreign referees are involved, I'm inclined to think there isn't anything nefarious going on. Still, I am curious and would like to know what happened. Let's see what comes to light. As for AEK insisting on the game being replayed, I say bring it on. Because I'm quite confident we would beat them. If they think they feel embarrassed now having lost 3 in a row, imagine the shame at having lost 4! PAOK fans would be singing of this for decades. Oh the songs that would be made. And if it so happened that AEK did win, well, it would just go down as 'χάρτινο 2.0'. They could add it to their pile of χαρτιά. They could add another 'X' to their name, and they could be known as 'ΑΕΧΧ'. As for asking for a replay, I say whoever is advising Melissanidis should be fired. Because either way they lose. If the game isn't replayed, they look like sore losers. If the game is replayed and they lose ... oh lord ... I don't even want to think about it. And if the game is replayed and they win it'll be labeled as 'χάρτινο 2.0'. Seriously, did they not spend 2 minutes thinking about this ? Apparently not.

A big part of the problem with Brexit, or rather the referendum, was it was in no way clear on what the consequences would be of leaving the EU. And a big part of the problem with defining that, was, it hadn't been defined! They are still trying to negotiate! The entire process has been a farce. The key issue was immigration (read cheap labor competing for jobs). Even if this can be proven to be a falsehood (and I've never checked in detail) this was the key thing that turned most voters to vote pro-Brexit. It's easy to preach about equality, inclusiveness, humanity and be an idealist. Fine, open your borders, today, right now, and let 2 billion Chinese, Mexicans and Indians in. Watch them take your jobs. If not yours, those of many around you. Not so appealing now ? People will vote to protect "their way of life" and "getting rid of foreigners" is an easy play. I was not surprised by the result. I didn't think it'd get over the line, but at the same time I wasn't surprised. What Britain should have done is used the referendum to broker some sort of a deal to limit immigration. There was no need to leave the EU. Now that it's done, Britain doesn't know which way to turn to broker a satisfactory deal. Either way, they're going to get screwed in the short term as the EU will actively try and make life difficult. In the long run, I guess we'll see if it was a good decision or not. Until the details are worked out, it's almost impossible to know.

Sad to see Klaus falling to this level. I was really hoping he would kill it at Giannina.

Great win. Great day. Great year. One for the history books. Lucescu surprised everyone with the midfield selection of Canas and Shakhov. The depth on our bench says something about how strong this squad is.

Hell yeah Dutch Eagle!

Shakhov is on around 600K. If the club has plans to sign someone better, then we should let him go. If we would only replace him with someone of similar quality, I don't see the sense in letting him go. Same goes for Canas. Naturally, this all depends on if the player(s) want to stay and if wages can be paid that satisfy both parties. It could be Shakhov wants more game time, which can't be promised. He has proven himself more than capable and I would be loathe to let him go. Charisis, Kace are not good enough for this PAOK team anymore. Lubos changed the quality and calibre of player brought into the squad. To be fair maybe he's become a better player for playing in Belgium. We will see at pre-season but I would be very surprised if he makes the cut. As for Moulin, I've never seen him play. Why did we even sign him ? He wasn't even a free transfer and we paid over a million for him. Anyway, according to a reporter, we're signing 8 players shortly. Go to 1 hour, 42 minutes in the video. This "reporter" must have good sources.

Tosca as LB makes more sense. Not sure if Lucescu would start him though.

Zivkovic just copped 7 goals against Aris. Have we signed him yet ? If yes, is there like a 30 day return policy ... sort of thing ? You know, like a cooling period.

Ok your sales pitch has succeeded. My password is "IHEARTTANTRA".

Would the VAR be done by Greek officials ? If so, I’d rather there is no VAR. I don’t see the sense in using the Cup Final as the first trial run. Better to begin using it at the start of a season. Having said that we have all seen some horrible VAR decisions that seem to defeat the purpose of its intention which is to stop obviously horrible errors. Instead it’s being used to see if players are 1 millimetre offside or if a handball is a handball because a defenders arm is at certain angles when a ball was kicked into them at 100 mph. The original impetus for it was the goal England scored in the World Cup, where the ball was like 1 foot inside the goal but it was so fast the referees missed it. In this case, where it’s 100% clear, let VAR be involved. Otherwise, it shouldn’t be invoked.

The only way you’re getting the password is if you bring out your expensive liquor (I’m not talking about your top shelf stuff on display but rather the stuff you’ve got hidden away), and I sit in your igloo, smoking a cigar, drinking your liquor, while watching you and GrkCdn22 having a “discussion”. For that, you can have the password.

Thanks @Lazarus.

Man o man, talk about stirring the hornets nest! I was just trying to have a bit of laugh. Yes, you are correct, I couldn't keep my promise. I waited, and I waited, and couldn't wait anymore. You must be very stubborn! Or maybe you were just busy with real life. Anyway, I am glad PAOK is no longer run by crooks like Batman and Goumenos. Those were dark days and no team with history and passionate fans should suffer with scum like this. Savvidis has been able to not only pay off our debt but also match our budget to be on par with Olympiakos, and the results are there for all to see. It's unfortunate that football has become all about money, but that's the reality these days. It's no coincidence that after Savvidis payed similar wages and transfers to Olympiakos we are at a similar overall level to them. Two more things. Firstly, Aris had a very good season all in all (ducks head while Yiankos throws something at me, he he) considering (a) they were just promoted and (b) replaced the manager half way through the season. Of all the "big" teams you guys actually pushed us the hardest. And that's the way derbies should be. Second, it's good to see more Aris fans on the forum. Good luck for next season (except against PAOK where you must lose at least 4-0).

I would *definitely* want Henrique there (on the bench as a supersub) for the final. He's performed well for us before in big games.

That's a bit harsh man about Glykos. Harsh, I tells ya! Wasn't he MVP last season ? The injury killed him. If it wasn't for that it's highly likely he would've been our first choice GK. If he was willing to stay on a much lower wage (I know it's highly unlikely) I'd be happy for him to stay.