Bananas

Oliveira has played like 90 minutes of football for us. Let’s wait a bit before we start wetting our pants. He seems good, but 12 million good ? Even 6 million is a lot for us. For 6 million I’d expect a player who is twice as good as every midfielder we currently have. As for Jaba, I know he’s only gotten regular football in the last month or so but I can see him being sold for more than Prijo.

Cool article. I love little behind the scenes snippets like these. Gotta say, Michel has been very good for the club. Really improved the squad. It’s interesting how he pinpoints getting Vieirinha as a shift in the club. If you were to look back at my posts I was against us signing Vierinha. I really thought he was just using us for one final big pay day. And at the time the salary seemed outrageous, for what I believed was an over the hill player. How wrong I was. So wrong. He really is a leader and just having him on the pitch makes such a huge difference.

@Molon Lave you will have to get a cool looking avatar if you want to get my vote. Just saying. ?

I don't like the idea of having 10 teams in a league. But I'd be willing to try it out as an experiment and see what comes of it. Minus play-offs of course. Even 12 I suppose. But it still feels wrong to me. Heck, if it was up to me, I'd make @PAOTHEGREAT life a complete nightmare and have 20 teams, like real leagues do.

Nice analysis. He's definitely been "reborn" in the last few weeks. Technically, he's very good. One of the best in the squad. My big issue was where he "fit" on the pitch. He's not a 10, and he's not really a winger. And he's not quite an 8. What the hell is he ? I mean, he can play all these positions but they didn't seem to fit 100%. I would say, he's best fit is as an inside forward. But regardless, he is versatile, and if he plays with the same passion at the same level he has played the last few weeks, no one will be complaining.

Akpom has surprised me. I didn’t think he’d be any good. Goes to show what I know. Still I miss Prijo and the fear he used to strike in the opposition.

At 39:20 in the press conference, a British journalist ask a question. What's with that ? I've never seen that sort of thing before. Since when do Brits even care what's happening in Greece. Of course we make exceptions for @DunfermlineAthleticPAOK.

Ha ha, Savvidis should have purchased 30,000 neck braces and handed them out to fans as they came into the stadium. Might make this my screen saver for a while. 3 donuts for Marinakis. Or should I say 3 bananas.

Don’t forget AEK. Now that they have they old manager back, they will be the BEST in no time. Give it a couple of weeks.

Happy for all PAOK fans today!

Pontos lives! Where ya been man ? Haven’t seen you on the forum in a while.

@paokarag4 chillax with replacing my beloved Crespo so soon! On a serious note, it’s hard to say until we see Ignason’s “style”. Crespo and Varela are complementary. They aren’t the same sort of player. I am just relieved we’ve got another option for CB. Let’s face it, if Varela or Crespo got injured for a long period, we’d be in trouble. I don’t believe Malezas has the quality anymore and I wouldn’t want to take a chance on Tosca. Ideally all 3 are rotated. I don’t see the sense in playing say Varela and Ignasson all the time and then having Crespo not match fit or his morale being low. It also opens up the option to play with 3 at the back. I know Lucescu isn’t a fan but I think there are times in Europe where you might need it. Anyway, this is the way it should be. Solid players all fighting for games and giving depth to the squad.

Agree about the referee controlling the game. That’s the thing, if a foreign makes a big mistake, the players just take it as such. If it’s a Greek referee, well we all know what happens ... the circus begins. As for Jaba, I definitely want him in the squad. His pace is scary and he has that potential to cut a team open, especially if they play a high line.

As everyone has observed, we would’ve had the chicken sh#t punks had Jaba not been sent off. Mantalos, tuff guy, bananes papara. First game where you could say the foreign referee was quite poor. Missed the penalty call against Shakhov and the second yellow on Jaba was really poor. Had this been a Greek referee, good lord, riots and conspiracies. The important thing is the mentality of the players. Had we lost, and lost badly, then it would’ve been bad going into Sunday’s game. As it is, even though we dropped points, the team didn’t take it as a loss. All things considered, a positive result.

Maybe he's Conceicao's love child ?

Good point on Branco pash ... when you say it like that. ? I kind of agree with Lucescu about not using true DM’s in Greece, but in Europe, you’ll get flogged without one, or sometimes against big teams, even two. Agree about Wernbloom being a lot more attacking than expected. Not that it’s a bad thing. Just wasn’t expected. As for the midfield permutations, yeah there are too many. We’ll have to see how Misic and Oliveira play over the next few months before we can eve guess.

I’m assuming the referee is from overseas ? That should help with players carrying on like imbeciles. At least now if we score a goal it won’t be disallowed 5 minutes later.

Basketball *blah* what an awful game.

Yeah man. Good move. Considering we got him as a 3rd backup keeper he’s worked out so well. Gonna be interesting what happens with the other GK’s on the squad. Rey was bought to be the first team keeper and he can’t be happy with the lack of playing time. Siananis looks like he wants out. And there is Gkykos who I guess is done after this season. Which is a shame. I remember when he collected his MVP and was emotional. That injury really ruined it for him just when he seemed to be finding his feet and really becoming a good solid keeper.

Agree Yiankos. Not sure how much Branco had to do with these signings. As for Varela he now needs to find a new team or accept much lower wages than what he was demanding. I don’t even know if our original offer of doubling his wage is on the table anymore. Ideally, the new Viking is of similar quality, or better, and we keep Varela also. Canas is a tricky one. I love the guy. He gives everything and just seems like a happy guy always smiling. But these days with the sort go budget we have and given his age, he’s very replaceable. When he first came to the team, he really helped a lot. People forget how awful our midfield was and Canas was a level above. But since then the team overall has gone up a level and these days he’s just a solid squad player. Ideally, we spend big on a DM because I believe it’s (a) the most important position on the ground and (b) Wernbloom hasn’t worked out. It’s the last piece in the puzzle for us.

So 4 nil then ?

They invented it so that Greek fans have proof of conspiracies. It keeps the kafeneia working which helps sustain the economy. In other countries, they forget about the offside after 5 minutes.

Forget about your dreams of Greek teams doing well in the CL. Maybe once a decade or so. The other teams in Europe are long gone and over the horizon. It’s virtually impossible to attract the level of players required to compete at that level. You should know this. There is a reason why we are 15th or so in coefficient ratings.

Not seeing what the big deal is with Oliveira. I suppose we'll see.

I think it's time to visit your shrink and get your prescription filled, because I have no idea what you're talking about accor6 etc. I never got involved in that talk in that era. That was between you green boys and the red boys. I reckon your memory is a bit fuzzy. As for the demise of Greek football, there is a simpler explanation. It's that Greek football has been left behind. It's not so much that we've gone backwards, it's that our level of professionalism is still stuck in the 90's. Other leagues have moved on, adapted, made a better product. Greece is still the same. Harassing referees, violence, crazy presidents etc. The Bosman rule came in and changed everything, everything, and Greece was sleeping. As for PAOK being the new sheriff, hey why the hell not. I don't see what the big deal is with PAOK actually having a president with a couple of dollars. Other clubs had it for years (or just failed to pay their debts). Is there some natural law that says it can't be so ?