Bananas

Matos, Mauricio, Hacheridi, Shakhov are locks. Shakhov I can see this being his last season but he has a place right now as a super sub and a fairly reliable rotation player. So it’s out of Henrique and Wards then. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this as I’ve always liked Henrique’s craziness and x factor. If I was the opposition he’s exactly the sort of player I don’t want coming off the bench. I suppose it also comes down to how Wards plays in the WC. If he has a good game or two clubs will come a knocking. I love how after a World Cup clubs go stupid based on one or two performances.

That video looks CRAZY. Gotta say our media department does some great work. I feel like running and yelling now only it’s 11:00 pm here in Austria and I’m in my pyjamas.

This is where it gets fuzzy. Take Shakhov who is from Ukraine. Ukraine is not part of the EU but I believe for UEFA's purposes Ukraine is not counted as a non-EU nation. If I have this wrong, then Xatseridi just took up a slot as he's from Ukraine.

You're such a nerd! I love it ha ha. :)

A part of me wants Prijovic to get no game time to increase the chances of him staying with us next season. And then there's that part of me that hopes he just kills it.

Does anyone have any idea of who (a) how many non-EU players are allowed in the GSL and (b) who our non-EU players are ? From what I can tell, the limit is 5 and currently we have Rey, Matos, Mauricio but this seems wrong. I'm sure there is one more player I'm missing.

Crespo held the defence together most of last season. Varela was all over the place last season and he was barely fit. Overweight and all over the place mentally. It wasn't until Varela woke up this year that he went ahead of Crespo in the pecking order. We forget what the quality of our defenders was not too long ago, Katsikas, Vitor, Tzavellas. Not that they were absolutely horrible, but I'll take Crespo over all of them any day of the week. Happy to have him (a) as a backup (b) for rotation (c) to keep the pressure on in case Varela or Xatseridi get complacent.

Honestly, I'd keep all four. Having a backup of Crespo's quality, you can't ask for more. I know he get heckled a lot but I've always rated him. The only bad thing about having these 4 is there is no room for developing a younger player.

Don't buy it. He's on like 800K with us. He's just won his first trophies in his career. He's at a team that is investing and is every chance of winning the league. And importantly, he's a regular starter and liked by the manager. For him to leave, man, they must be offering his some serious money.

Looks like Xatseridi has signed. http://www.sport24.gr/football/omades/Paok/ypegrapse-ston-paok-o-xatserinti.5214150.html @Yiankos do you think he's any better than Crespo ?

Yeah I'm not concerned on if Savvidis can finance it. 10 million a year out of his pocket is in all likelihood not a big deal. I'm thinking more about what PAOK can afford if it the club had to stand on its own. I mean the wages bill is just enormous these days. Before Savvidis most of the squad were on between 100K - 200K. A few players over that and maybe one or two 300+. Now, it's just crazy. At least for PAOK anyway.

So Savvidis is going to put in 11 million more euros according to http://www.sport24.gr/football/omades/Paok/mono-amk-11-100-000-eyrw-sthn-pae-paok.5213982.html. So is this the amount we are in the "red" by this season ? One has to wonder at what point this becomes unsustainable. Incidentally, is there a way to find out PAOK's finances for previous seasons ?

Not only that, but our overall squad level has improved to the point where it's very difficult to see the loan players ever making it. Players like Kitsiou, Charisis, Mystakidis (sorry pash) no problem two years ago. They were squad players or even starters. Now ? A bit hard to see them getting any game time at all.

It just seems bizarre. End of the day it doesn't matter how many teams you have in the league, how you structure it, if you have play-offs or not. What matters is getting fans to the ground and this sort of superficial tinkering does nothing. Better grounds, safer grounds, family friendly, no more alitia is what will improve the league. Not this rubbish.

Would be the first sensible transfer Arsenal has made in defence in many years. For reasons unknown Wenger forgot (maybe he's getting senile) part of what made his "Invincibles" team so invincible. It was that he had players that could be brutes if required. Keown, Campbell, Parlour, Vieira. These guys can give kicks as well as take a kick. Wenger tried to build a Barcelona type of team which is fine if you have the biggest budget in the world but he didn't. For years poor Arsenal fans have had to watch as mid-table and lower teams get "stuck in" and overwhelm Arsenal through sheer physicality. You think Vieira would let the opposition get away with that ? I don't think so. When your entire team is soft the opposition can smell it. And yet Wenger would *whinge* for YEARS that his team was unlucky. When you're unlucky in the same circumstances for year after year you're not unlucky. If Wenger had 2 brutes in the back that don't take crap and one in the middle he would've got a lot closer to winning a league. As to why Wenger couldn't see this who the hell knows. One of life's mysteries.

If Srna is for one season and 500K then that's reasonable. I'm so used to us making poor signings that I immediately jumped the gun.

I’ll forgive Lucescu for not rating Biseswar at the beginning of the season. At first glance he may appear lazy. Some players are hard to judge. Remember how much crap used to be said about Campos ? But now we know the sort of player he is and what we can expect. Same goes for Biseswar. If now Lucescu still doesn’t want him then I don’t know anything about anything. Maybe I should just take up knitting instead of following football. As for Srna, is that a big joke or what ? The guy is 36. Why don’t we bring back Lino and Muslimovic while we’re at it.

Not keen on Biseswar ? I call balderdash on that! If I could take any player from PAOK for free it would be out of Prijovic or Biseswar. But I’d probably go Biseswar. Players of his ilk don’t come around often. The Pelkas to Besiktas thing I’m a bit confused on. Don’t see how it would be a big deal for Pelkas. For a non Greek player sure it’s an upgrade but I don’t think Pelkas dream is to play in the Turkish league. Not saying he won’t go or isn’t interested but I don’t think he’s gagging for it either. Kyriakos we’ll see I suppose. I always thought we had 0.0000000001% chance to sign Vieirinha so I don’t know squat. The good thing if by some miracle we got him is that we pretty much have a CB and a future captain for the next 5+ years. I can’t see him leaving Greece if he comes back. Mak is a tricky one. He had a below average season. I’d still buy him for the 2 million Zenit are asking. He’s just got too much potential to smash it in the GSL. In Europe too where teams won’t just sit back we’ve seen how he can tear teams apart. Then we have Wards and Henrique. Henrique is the most inconsistent but he can also turn a game. Great and I mean great option to have on the bench. Warda had a great season also. It’s a really tough call if you can only pick 2 of the 3. I hope the Rey rumour isn’t true. From what I saw he seemed solid. Knowing our luck we’ll sell Rey and then Paschalakis will get injured or sold to Italy. If it was the PAOK of yesteryear where we didn’t really expect to go for the title I’d say sell. But if you want to go for the title you need 2 strong keepers. And we have Glykos as well so I’m actually happy with our GK’s for the first time in forever. Frankly I’d only sell if we got a really good offer. Oh, almost forgot. El Khaddouri can go. See ya bud.

In other gossip Koulouris may go out on loan. Will we have any strikers next season ? It’s going to be a glorious few months for gossip.

The amount is kind of meaningless. What’s important is where does the club see Paschalakis in the future. If they see him as our GK for the next 2, 3 or more seasons then the amount is pitiful considering we don’t need to sell. If the club think Rey or Glykos are just as good then it’s a good offer and you’ll probably never get a better offer. It all depends how the club values him. If they really think he’s the best of the 3 then why would you compromise your already tough CL qualifiers for the sake of what’s really small change.

Sadly the only way this will *maybe* change is if there are a series of mass shootings one after the other.

I would've thought Kyriakos Papadopoulos but if what he's saying is true then I'm guessing Stafylidis or Berg. As for the LB position 100% bring back Giannoulis. Leovac was average and has no heart. Leveque was comic relief. Azevedo is actually not bad but his wages are that of a top player which he is not in this team.

Yeah man, bring on Ajax. We'll get then at the 3rd 4th 5th 6th attempt.

Wouldn't think so but if he has oh boy what a mess. Either his contract with Olympiacos would be void or more likely AEK would be entitled to some sort of fair compensation.

Now that it appears Lazaros won’t be continuing at AEK I think the club should make a serious effort to sign him. Find out what Olympiakos is offering then offer double. Surprise Lazaros, I was just kidding. We don’t really want you back.