Bananas

i think Prijovic will start due to the fact that he also helps a lot defensively with his height.

Really ? What's that about ?

Prijovic is our only real striker. There was talk earlier in the year that Mak could be used as a backup striker but he isn't that sort of a player. All a team has to do to stop Mak is play deep and without space to run into a big part of his game is nullified. Koulouris and Klaus (when we had him) are/were both average at best. With Prijovic the opposition *have* to play their best defender on him. With Koulouris or Klaus quality strikers you can play your second, third or fourth best defender and you'll probably be all right. No offence to them of course, I know they give it their best. But with Prijovic you have to watch him. His aerial presence alone is something we've missed for years. I've always looked at our squad and thought "if Olympiakos could have any of our players who would they want ?". In seasons past I could maybe pick 2, 3 or 4 players at best. But now we have Rey, Matos, Zambrano, Mauricio, Vieirinha, El Khadouri, Mak, Prijovic. The squad is looking strong and any talk of selling should be dismissed. Trust me without Prijovic we don't win a title. Add to that list very competent players on their day like Crespo (Yiankos's koumbaro), Varela, Canas, Biseswar, Pelkas, Shakhov, Campos and all of a sudden the squad is potentially challenging for the title. Really challenging or at least they should be. Some of these players can be hot and cold with their form so if they can stay in form it could make the difference. Speaking of Pelkas he finally seems to have woken up and started playing some decent football. He just needs to stop getting silly yellow cards. I really think he should be with the NT if we manage to qualify for The WC.

Prijovic was a bargain. I don't think he's that easy to replace. Considering we haven't won the league since 1985, the club should concentrate on that first and monies later! If it were up to me, I wouldn't even sell him for 15 million at this stage, considering there are lots of players out there worth much more than Prijovic (on paper) that you don't know if they will be even half as good.

Since when have we ever sold a player for their buyout clause value ? It's always less. If anything it gives clubs a figure from which to negotiate down. Better off just not having a buyout clause.

What I want is for both Biseswar and El Khaddouri to be playing. Biseswar as the 10 and El Khaddouri as the 8. Seriously, with half the teams in the league you only need one DM. In theory Mauricio is the man (at least we're paying him enough for him to brag about it) but we'll see how he goes.

Ha ha ha, intruder alert!

Being a pessimist PAOK supporter, I'm still finding it hard to believe this could even be a possibility but it sounds like it could really happen. I saw the pics on sport24.gr and they look pretty cool. Ante na doume. As far as the stadium is concerned, who will it belong to and who is paying for it ?

According to http://inpaok.com/386346/πλησιάζει-τα-100-εκ-η-επένδυση-του-ιβάν/ Savvidis has put in around 100 million into the club. Just asking, but on what exactly ?!?! There was the 10 million that was owed to the government. I assume when he came to the club there were some other outstanding debts so we'll call that say another 5 to 10 million. Toumba got upgraded so I'll add another say 5 million there. We're at around 25 million. I figure each year we need a top up of around 5 or so million as the revenue generated by the club probably doesn't meet the expenses, although this year it'll be more because player wages have increased significantly and revenue has dropped due to games without fans and the early exit from the EL. Any ideas people ? Also, what if Savvidis wanted to leave the club one day (not that he would). How would that work ?

Good time to invest in shares of gun companies. Apparently sales increase as people become worried gun controls might be introduced. Crazy world we live in. Crazy yanks.

CL money is part of the problem. The part I think is more detrimental is how teams in the EU can have as many players as they want that are EU nationals. I'd prefer if there was a limit like they do in Turkey. But that would never happen. The big boys would squeal.

I would've preferred we had Henrique. Maybe he could've scored on the weekend against Apollon Smyrnis. Lord knows we needed some firepower and someone that could take players on, one vs one. That is one thing Henrique is good at.

Yiankos, any team with a weakness is exposed, and rightfully so. In our case our midfield is poor. The defense also but right now the midfield is the bigger problem. The quality is there on paper, but on paper only. Canas, Cimirot, Shakhov, El Khaddouri, Mauricio, Biseswar all not performing to their full ability. Whether it's poor form, poor fitness, whatever, doesn't matter. The fact is there is no midfield at the moment and until these players are fit and in form, we will continue to struggle. Nevertheless, I think we all still expect a win in Toumba. After all, in Toumba we are lions. In Athens, we are kittens.

One thing that is indefensible is so many players in the squad that appear to not be fit.

Too hard to judge Lucescu just yet. Remember, Ivic started off slow as well. The two away games so far in the GSL are par for the course. The players need to do their job also and put the ball in the net. It's not like we didn't have the run of the play and didn't have enough opportunities to score. Sure we could be playing better but there's enough quality/chances there to finish off games. The HUGE fail was definitely EL but again, how much was Lucescu's fault and how much was the players and the administration ? I am not sold on Lucescu but it's too hard to judge him just yet. If people think any manager can come in and just turn this team around (remember how poor we were in the play-offs), they are dreaming. Let's see what the next month or two brings ... if he lasts the long ha ha.

We qualify for EL most years and still we get results like this EVERY year. It has nothing to do with EL. It has to do with DRIVE and WILL to win. The only thing these players are good for is saying "I've come to PAOK to win the title" when they first sign, and they are also very good at saying "sorry" when they get a bad result. You do get results like this from time to time, you can't always win. But with PAOK it's not sometimes, it's often.

I'd have been surprised if we did win. We have never done well away from home. Just lack that killer instinct. Don't really know if he's any good or not. He might be a great manager but he's only been in the role for a month or so and didn't have a proper pre season which didn't help. His substitutions do seem a bit off but we don't know what's happening at the training and if he's doing this to try and get players some match fitness. Or he may be terrible, who the hell knows at this stage. What I do know is that this squad could have any manager, really, and should be winning these sorts of games 3-0.

Important game to win. Olympiacos dropped a lot of points last season. I don't think they'll be so generous this year. If we want to challenge we need to start winning in Athens.

Interesting article in so far as it shows how much wages we are paying. http://www.sport24.gr/football/omades/Paok/pio-pshlos-pio-wrimos-pio-akrivos.4838917.html 15 million in wages. Add the 40% tax and it's 21 million.

Ha ha ha. Yes it is unusual ... but I like it. Their form has been poor so far this season. It's like you said there are 8 players fighting for 3 positions. Still you'd think they would at least have made the bench.

Sfaliares from those big mits of his, ha ha.

Stay safe Yiankos. You can't let anything happen to you before we win a title.

There is. They didn't win. Hence you look for any and every decision that didn't go your way. Mind you PAOK, AEK and PAO are the same. Big bunch of cry babies all of them. Do you see that in other countries ? I see BIG mistakes ALL THE TIME in other countries. But they get over it and move on. In Greece, it has to be a conspiracy. M-A-L-A-K-I-E-S.

I personally think it's not true, but if any club is capable of making stupid decisions, it's ours. I remember Ivic saying last season that he considered Biseswar in the top 3 players in the GSL, and rightfully so. If in some alternate universe we do sell him, I'll be stunned.

Article on inpaok http://inpaok.com/378864/κοντά-στην-γκεντσλερμπιρλιγκί-ο-μπίσ/ about Biseswar. Hopefullly it's just the media making up fables because they have nothing else to report on.