Bananas

One of the key requirements for the new manager was that he was meant to keep the core of the team. If you implement a system that doesn't use wingers as in the 4-4-2 diamond, then you basically don't need Campos, Henrique or ... Warda. Anyway, we shall see. I'm all for mixing it up as far as systems go and it's good to throw the opposition and have players that are flexible. There is no such thing as the "best" system or "we don't change our system for any opposition" unless you are in the top two or three clubs in the world and can buy the best of the best.

Oh God I'm over the Ochoa saga. I don't even care if we get him anymore. Surely there are other GK's out there ?

Yeah, I'm a bit confused about this whole 4-4-2 business. Especially so since Stanojevic said in his press interview that he'd be flexible regarding the system. Technically, 4-4-2 means your wingers drop back a little and play slightly deeper, and you do away with a number 10 in the hole in favour of a second striker. I can't see how you wouldn't play Biseswar, who is our best player when fit, and his natural position is a number 10. If anything, I can see us playing a 4-4-1-1 when Biseswar is playing, or he'll push him onto the flank, which is all well and good but a player like Biseswar you want roaming all over the place. If anyone is capable of a free role it's him. Anyway, we'll see.

Worse than that, he's following his own advice.

You would think that Warda would take things more seriously. Sure, maybe signing for PAOK is not the dream for him, but it's the best he's ever had and may very well be the best he will ever have. Add to that the fact that there is competition for the positions that he plays and also he takes up a foreigner slot, you'd think he'd be at the training ground early and raring to go. Oh well, like pash said, it's like we have to have one of these every season. Bye bye Warda, see you next season ... maybe.

1.5m per season for Ochoa ? That's a lot of cash.

Don't see us doing any better than previous seasons. AEK hopefully can make it to the group stages and PAO also but it won't be easy. PAO are losing all their best players.

What did Lubos Michel say were the seasons ? Seems a bit of a stretch or at the very least a risky roll of the dice. So we're speculating that Ivic has left a guaranteed position at a club where for the most part he is loved, gets paid well, gets paid on time, has a decent transfer budget by GSL standards and has a good level of control over the team. He has a solid core of players and has been promised 2 to 3 very solid signing to push for the title. He leaves this in the hope that the current Olympiakos manager gets sacked and he then gets the position. Even if it's the case that Ivic has a gentleman's agreement with Marinakis, who is to say that it will be stuck to when the time comes ? It seems more likely to me that something happened (who the hell knows what) that left a really really really bad taste in Ivic's mouth that made him want to leave the club. Because, right now, there is the possibility that he will never manage a club bigger than PAOK. He may, but he also may not. On a side note, if it so happens that Ivic does become the Olympiakos manager one day, he better wear a crash helmet to Toumba because there will be more than the one empty/half/full beer can thrown at him.

Unbelievable. I wonder what it is that Ivic wanted. I mean, he had the support of the club, he had a decent transfer budget and I assume his salary would've been adequate. If Ivic suddenly signs with another team that would explain it I suppose. We shall see ...

Not so. I'm reading just an hour ago that Ivic has offers from a Turkish club and that he presented them to the club. It appears our club was unwilling to match the offer. Again, it's all speculation but this at least adds up.

The whole situation is strange. I thought Ivic was a lock down for next season given we won the Cup. Sure the play offs went badly but when you look at the entire season as a whole, it was successful. On the plus side of the ledger :- - we won the Cup. Our first trophy in years. - seem to have fixed the issue with the injuries. Remember those ? - seem to have fixed our defensive frailties at set pieces. Remember those ? - cleaned out a lot of the dead wood and trouble makers. - built a solid core of say 15 or say players. A real core for the first time in forever. - had a good run in the second half of the season. - overall are playing fairly decent football. - managed to score 52 goals in the league (5 less than Olympiakos) with only one real striker who played only a handful of games and minutes. - Ivic understands Greek football. This should not be underestimated. On the minus side of the ledger :- - the team did start poorly, but what do we expect ? It was a new inexperienced coach with lots of new players and no core to begin with. - Ivic at times lacks tactical ... sophistication. Again, what do we expect. He's new and will learn. The naive mistakes he makes today hopefully won't be repeated tomorrow. - the play offs went badly. So I can't see how the club could be unhappy with Ivic. I can only guess that it's Ivic that has grievances with the club. Maybe he was expecting a certain salary after the Cup win and then post play offs that had been reduced and he's angry about it. Nothing else makes sense. As far as risk goes, Ivic is definitely the less risky option compared to getting a new coach. Sorry, I know this has been said 1000 times but a good proven coach is NOT coming to PAOK. Not given our history of firing coaches every season. If we get a new coach it could be the same crap all over again. Why risk it ? Stick with Ivic and let's see where it takes us. I think after another full season (my god, I can't believe I'm even thinking of PAOK sticking with a coach for 2 years!!!) then we can reassess.

Or charge them double so they stop ****** around with the violence.

Vieirinha, ha ha. Well, at least next season it's a remote possibility. But why would we pay for him when with that money we can get someone else. Even if he came for free he would want wages of close to a million I would imagine. All this for a 31 year old whose body has been battered the last couple of seasons. We all love the kid and I'd be happy to have him back in the squad at average wages on the proviso that he doesn't expect to start every game. He'd be a super option for rotation or impact player but there is no way he would accept that.

The whole situation is bizarre. There are rumours Ivic will go to Serbia but that doesn't make sense. That's not an upgrade. If I had to guess I think Ivic wasn't happy with the offer after the Cup win (incidentally, what is Ivic's salary ?), and maybe he thought wait till he "wins" the play offs and ask for more. Maybe now he's found the offer insulting ? Hard to say, I'm just speculating. As for the calls of bringing in a quality coach, @BostonThanatos summed it up perfectly. What coach, at the top of their game, would come to PAOK given our history with coaches ? The answer -> no one. The best we can hope for is a coach that was good once upon a time or an up and comer that isn't proven. I don't think it matters how much we offer in a salary, there is just no good reason for a good manager to come to Greece, at least, not to any team other than Olympiakos. On a side note, is Xanthi's coach still available ? Would he be any good ?

The last 5 years should tell us how difficult it is to find a good quality keeper. I just hope Glykos can make a good recovery and in the mean time I don't really know what the club will do. Maybe Brkic will get his s**t together because I'm sure he has to be a bit better than what he's shown so far. As for Glykos, a well deserved MVP. The guy has battled hard to get to where he is. Hopefully some squad members can be inspired by the emotion he showed.

Can't understand why we'd sell Cimirot for 5 if his buy out clause is 6. Regardless, we'd still make about 3 million on him even after subtracting the 15% owed to his former club. We'll need that because he won't be that easy to replace.

So long as we keep the core 16 or so players we'll be all right. I'd like to see Ivic stay if only to see what the team can achieve. Really, if you look at it objectively, the team has gotten stronger and stronger overall. Sure there's been dips but overall the team is heading in the right direction. If we do end up getting a new coach and there is a clear out of the squad, then we're just running on the spot.

Oh, I know you're happy ha ha. I just don't know what savoura we're going to get now. Are you thinking we can't get any worse ? I assure you at PAOK they specialize in running around in circles. Anyway, let's see what happens. I was complaining a while back that I just wanted one manager to last an entire season. Was that too much to ask ?!?! And now my wish was granted. Hats off to the first manager in the 5 year Savvidis era to last from the pre-season to the end of the season.

There must be something else going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. It just doesn't make any sense. From the second half of the season the team was quite stable and playing very good football. Sure there was the occasional game here or there but overall the best half season in a long time. Then we win the Cup. Everything is going just dandy. And now this ? Cool, yeah, we were bad in the play-offs but I don't see how that would be enough to sack Ivic. If that is our criteria, then we will be sacking coaches every year, which come to think of it, we do! :)

I know Ivic has still got a long way to become a complete manager but overall I thought he's done a decent job. I'd give him a C+. Not including the play-offs the second half of the season we were very good. We got the Cup, our first trophy in 14 years. I can't really say what happened in the play-offs but if Ivic's excuse is fatigue, that is a poor excuse as we have the strongest roster out of the teams in the play-offs. What I particularly like about Ivic is that he's played and lived in Greece for years. He understands the football in Greece and he's a PAOK boy which I believe is always a plus. If we bring in a foreigner, how will he cope ? Will he freak out when he realizes the the GSL is a b-o-u-r-d-e-l-o ? That is my bigger concern. Not the fact that there aren't better managers out there, but how can we get them to come to Greece and stay for the long haul. There is also the issue of when a new manager comes in they want to bring in 10 new players. Hopefully we don't have to go through that yet again. Anyway, let's see what happens. I am not super enthused about keeping Ivic because he's made quite the mistakes this season but will the alternative be any better ? At least with Ivic we can assume (or am I being silly) that he would at least get better and mature with time.

They could but they just don't. Unfathomable.

They would only be happy if we got -100 points from the league, 42 years with no fans and 1 billion euro fine. I think Marinakis should just concentrate on eating more donuts. He'd save himself some money by just buying a franchise.

That's right. The standard is very good at the round of 32. Olympiakos has been eliminated at that stage the last two seasons. It's not a walkover and if we are being real, we are little fish at that stage. It would be a good achievement to get past that point.

Sorry, not possible. Savvidis runs the league now. He's been running it for the last 5 years (and will be for the next 20). Get with the times man!

Seems to be a common theme recently. I don't watch enough games unfortunately to see what it going on. Are the players just not good enough, motivated enough, fatigue maybe ?