Bananas

Lamprou scores yet again. I'm beginning to think maybe we should have kept him in our squad and loaned out Koulouris instead.

I'll take a half baked Savvidis and Son over the years of old. I think we all forget how players would leave at the end of every season with out being paid. We forget how we were forced to sell players like Stafylidis and Vieirinha because we had debts to pay other players. We forget Salpi being forced to leave even though he wanted to stay because again they needed to sell him to pay debts. We forget how Malezas left the club not paid and as a favour he let it go and who knows how many others. They were terrible years. Savvidis is in it for himself. Who isn't ? Are any of the other owners any better. No one is happy with what happened this week, but trust me, if Savvidis left PAOK would fall to pieces very quickly. We are not, and have never been financially stable. Wages would drop back to 150K for most players and even they wouldn't be paid. As shitty as this elimination is, there is no way in f**king hell I want to go back to those days. We had good moments, proud moments, but lots of bad ones also. End of the day, the circus of hiring/firing TD's and managers has to end. Will it end ? Who knows. Ivic broke the record at just over a season. That says it all. I've said it before, we could hire Mourinho and we'd be asking for his head in a month. Off the field the teams lacks leadership, because the manager is new. Is Lucescu any good for PAOK ? Who f--king knows ? Only the gods. We'll find out soon enough. On the field the team lacks leadership also but I don't see how this can be fixed right away. You can't expect players we've signed to play "for the jumper". Let's be honest, most of them wouldn't have heard of PAOK 3 years ago. The only saving grace of this season so far is that we still have the core of players from last season which for us is a miracle. Normally we would've made 10 signings by now to appease the fans. The only person that can change the mentality of the players is the manager and right now he's been there two weeks. If I die and get to meet God or Zeus or Thor or whoever, and they said to me "You can ask one question and it will be answered", a normal person would ask something like "What is the meaning of life" or something like that. Instead I (because I'm a m-a-l-a-k-a) will ask "Why did Ivic really leave PAOK". Ase, eimaste yia klammata.

Hopefully Savvidis doesn't accept it. For myself, he's the best TD we've had and if you have a look at the players he's brought to the club, most were decent. Only Brkic has been a complete flop. The rest you can see there is something there. Now his job is to bring players to the team. It's not his job to train them, make sure they're fit, keep them motivated, keep them hungry, keep them scared. That's for others to do. Matos, Crespo, Canas, Shakhov, Biseswar, Campos, Prijovic, Henrique. These are players that have come to the team while he's been TD. Hardly crap players. They have their issues but it's not his role as TD to make sure they're at 100%. That's up to the manager. End of the day, until we get a manager with a*****A and a midfielder in the mold of Garcia who can be a real captain on the pitch, the team will struggle to stay motivated.

@PAOKSYD nice post.

What can I say ... PAOK is a team that gives ... χαρά ... not just to PAOK fans, but to Olympiakos, PAO and AEK fans also.

Losing Ivic was indeed a massive loss, and no one really understands why. But regardless, this squad could have gone out with no manager at all and should still have easily one. Goes to show the current disarray.

This is basically the same team that beat PAO 4-0 and played very well against Olympiakos both home and away. Say what you will but how they can drop their performance so much is a messed up. The club, knowing that they had play-offs should have the team fit and raring to go. Instead, we took our opposition lightly. A team who eliminated Galatasaray, has an artificial pitch (a huge advantage for them) and is fully fit being 20 rounds into their season. We just assumed we would qualify, because we always do. Yep, no worries. The worst aspect of all this is that we got thoroughly out played. It's one thing to dominate a game, create 20 chances and then the opposition score a lucky goal. It's another to be playing like gatakia against amateurs. Lucescu has a lot of work to do ...

Boston, regardless of the mistakes Savvidis has made and regardless of his neanderthal son (that always makes me laugh, ha ha) it's not as if Savvidis hasn't spent money on decent players. There is no way this squad should ever have been defeated by this team. The fact that the team has not played one good match since the Cup is ridiculous. The fact that the team is not fit is not acceptable. The only good thing that may come of this is that in future years we won't take "weak" opposition so lightly. We always assume we'll qualify. I figure the same belief is held by the team administration, coaches and players, even if they don't say it directly. Now, they can all go eat a bag of d--ks. I'm so angry that they let it come to this.

Congratulation to AEK who defeated a strong opponent. Congratulation also to Ouzounidis and PAO who always had an uphill battle against a very strong Bilbao team coupled with their financial difficulties. As for PAOK, rezili not only for themselves but for Greece who desperately need the points.

I've been wondering that myself but we won't really know for a while if the players are burnt out (which would be a big worry) or if they are just poorly prepared.

The result is much much worse than the result against Vienna as back then we were financially in disarray (I think Frings was the coach). Now what excuse do we have ?

No hard luck. Poor team attitude and preparation from the day Ivic left. We got what we deserved and were not unlucky.

The Ivic departure ... I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with Savvidis's son.

I would say that the state of mind of European Opponents right now is superb.

We will concede a goal in the 70th minute and then have heart attacks for the rest of the game if it's a typical PAOK performance. On a serious note, first goal is key. If we score the game is over. If they score, they'll be like a bunch of Vikings in a berserker rage.

So ... El Kaddouri, is this guy any good ? I mean, I haven't really been following it because frankly I just thought it was media m-a-l-a-k-i-e-s but it looks like this is going to happen.

This one is a bit different in that it's at home. Our problem has never really been our home form. Sure it could be better but in general it's been all right. Our away form has always been average at best and that isn't going to cut it if you want to mount a championship challenge. It's still a bit early to judge but we'll have a better picture by round 8 or so. I still think we don't have the quality to go all the way. Our best 11, when they are in form and fit is probably close, but that's assuming all the stars align. We still have holes in our roster in terms of backups. Our backup to Matos in the RB position is nowhere near his quality. In the LB position Leovac seems tobe going through a bad spell and I'm not sold on Leveque. I think Leveque is a decent player but we bought him knowing he's got injury issues and right now he can't be relied upon. In the CB position we have only Crespo, who seems like he's been sleeping so far this season after a very solid season last year, and Varela. It's nice to have Malezas but we don't want to rely on him for lots of games if the others get injured. In the midfield we only have Shakhov who can play box to box and get forward but he's also been asleep so far this season. In the attacking midfield role we only have Biseswar. Pelkas is no Biseswar. Up front we only have Prijovic. Mak can't play as a striker when teams park the bus. We have a large roster but In terms good quality players that can help you really challenge for a title we have (in my estimation) :- GK : Rey, Glykos. I think we're all right for GK's. Especially once Glykos returns. Rey seems to be a very good signing. Defence : Matos, Leovac, Crespo, Varela, Malezas. Not enough depth in defence. Yellows, injuries, rotation will take its toll. I think we need a RB, LB and CB. Midfield : Canas, Cimirot, Kace, Shakhov. Not bad all in all but would be nice to replace Kace with a high quality DM and get a high quality number 8 to rotate with Shakhov. Let's see what happens with El Kaddouri. Out of the DM and CM positions, a CM is more urgent. Wingers : Henrique, Mak, Djalma. We are all right here. Good enough quality. Attacking Midfield : Only Biseswar. Striker : Only Prijovic. Other players : Pelkas, Mystakidis. Both have a role to play and are good for rotation. With the above plus high quality signings in the RB, LB, CB, DM, CM and Striker roles, then we're talking. That's 6 players so it sounds kind of ridiculous. But if you want to have a squad that can really go all the way, that is what I think is required.

Disappointing beginning to our ... "title challenge". But hey, I'm used to it, I'm a PAOK supporter. I can't understand why Konstantinidis wasn't used as RB instead of Crespo. This is a game where you expect to be attacking most of the time and he has much better attacking attributes compared to Crespo. Maybe it was Stanojevic's superb pre-season preparation that forced the decision. Also, Limnios starting ? Unusual decision. I said letting Kitsiou go was unwise. He would've started this game. Can't understand why we've left the RB position exposed when Matos is not playing. Maybe we are waiting on Vieirinha ?

I can only assume that the club intends to buy another striker as having only Koulouris as backup is nowhere near enough. Mak can play as a striker also, as evidenced in the match against Brondby but where teams park the bus it does not suit him. As for Klaus, I am surprised he is considering leaving. Sounds like the club is pushing him out. Even though our title hopes are slim (until proven otherwise) we are at least a chance this season, in theory, for the first time in decades. You'd think Klaus would want to be a part of that ... possibility.

These are the games where you mount a title challenge or not. The away games where we often drop points to teams who have 1/10th our budget. Let us see what this year will bring ...

Does anyone know what the contract terms for Stajonevic were ? I believe it was 1+1 so we only have to pay him out for 1 year. Not a bad payout for Stajonevic for 56 days work. Any idea what his yearly salary was ?

In honour of Stanojevic. Close the door on your way out.

Obviously this is a circus but it's infinitely better it happens now. As for the replacement, Lucescu, it's a decent choice. He ticks one of the criteria we all wanted i.e. understanding the GSL and he's proven he's at the very least competent. He also played a very defensive game so I hope he'll use that knowledge to break down defensive teams. Time will tell. As for Stanojevic, what a let down. All he did was whine about how he wants to play this and that style all the while complaining he didn't have the players to do it. And he would say this in public! Yes banana, that is a guaranteed way to make the players not play for you, not respect you, not believe in you and worst of all, lose confidence in themselves. Seriously what an imbecile. Normally I'd be really pissed about yet another firing but I believe in this case the right call was made.

1st prize goes to Red Sheriff for his prediction, ha ha.

You need to learn to speak gooder English. It's "How embarrassment".