Bananas

Maybe it's the beginning of a bromance ? If/when you next try to post, if you "hover" the mouse in the "box" that says Aek66 you should see like another little box, about half a centimetre that is in the top left hand corner. If you click the little box and the hit the Delete key, it should get rid of it. It's a bit hard to explain in words. Just keep at it.

lol

Maybe it's just different in Canada compared to Australia. Don't know. Could be region specific as well for all I know. I agree they are different to us. How can it be otherwise. But growing up we always got along really well. I don't ever recall even one incident between us and Serbs, not one. Between Greeks and Greeks however, I could tell you stories for days.

Nice post Thrylos. I too have many Serb friends and acquaintances and it's similar to how you described your situation. Just because there were lots of Serbs (and Greeks and Italians) growing up. I will correct you on one thing though. You said 90% of the world don't even know what Skopje is. I would venture to say it's closer to 99.99%.

Realistically they are the only club from Melbourne that is possibly viable. No one else comes close. South Melbourne are in that situation where they are too big for the State League but possibly not big enough for the A-League. If they are given the support that was offered to other A-League clubs, it could happen. Not sure about the clubs from Sydney. I'm sure at least one or two could also do the same. I would definitely have egg on my face if this happened. About 2 years ago I met up with a friend who happens to be related to the South Melbourne President who also came and had coffee. Humble guy, real nice. Not your typical Greek who tries to show off. It wasn't until about an hour into the conversation that we got to talking soccer and I found out he was the president of South. Anyway, he was telling me about all the work they're doing behind the scenes to get into the A-League and I said with all sincerity that they had zero chance of this happening. He was politely of the opinion that it will happen one day. We shall see. Good luck to them.

Maniatis looked really excited too. Maybe he thought someone else scored the goal, he he.

The reaction of the players, ha ha, jumping around like gazelles. Good to see the passion.

+1 again. If Greece had other attacking players that were more threatening, he may find some space that way to work in, but this is not the case. It's time for him to leave Greece and play in a real league where it's tough games week in week out. This doesn't guarantee anything, just look at Samaris, but it's still the right thing to do at this point. I hope he gets picked up by a Serie A team where he's a starter.

+1 that's all.

He's hardly played at all this season. He's far from match fit. He played 90 minutes last week for the first time since his injury. So between him and Maniatis you have a midfield that isn't match fit. Taxi injured. Tziolis not at NT level for 4 years. Midfield is a real problem, our biggest problem in my opinion, although there are issues all over the pitch. I don't see a "fix" given that Skibbe is getting results. 3 win, 1 draw, 9 goals for, 2 goals against. Everything is going great! Taxi is the only player I would put any stock on developing as a regular starter. He shows enough in his Serie A games to see he is better than the rest. Samaris maybe once he's match fit but right now he shouldn't be in the starting 11. Maniatis and Tziolis should retire and become pundits. I would be interested to hear there take on the NT.

Sorry, but I'm with Lamiara on this one. 95% of rap is so bad. Devoid of originality. I swear give me 2 weeks and a basic music computer program and I could come up with rap songs that sound like 95% of them. Can you imagine if we had the technology to somehow resurrect a Beethoven or a Mozart, and we said to them "There is a type of music these days, very popular, have a listen". I can imagine the reactions. Nooooooo! Kill me now! Why did you wake me!

... or just a lucky/unlucky deflection. Sometimes, it's just that simple.

I don't ever see a day where you have a system like in the U.S. (and Australia for that matter) of drafts, spending caps etc. It's too far gone and the big clubs in Europe would object vociferously. I think if it came to it, they would break away and make their own league. Having said that, UEFA has implemented the Financial Fair Play system but it's still a bit of a joke. It's too little too late. There were always big clubs (e.g. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayer, Man Utd, Liverpool, Milan, Inter, Juve etc.) but the disparity now is ... just so large it's become ridiculous. This is because of the CL and the huge prize money. It started the snowball effect and has just rolled on. But I don't know what you can really do about it. Maybe UEFA could halve the prizemoney and instead give it clubs directly, even those not competing in Europe. Hmm, now I'm sounding like a commie. You want to know what I think is the best way to stop the massive disparity ? Go back to the old days, maybe tweaked a little. 1) Only allow 5 foreigners in the squad. Back in the day it was 3 but I think that's maybe a bit low. 2) Don't allow a club to have more than "x" number of players in total. This is to stop clubs buying 60 players and loaning them out. If you have a player, he should be in your squad. Otherwise, you need to sell him. The beauty of point 1) above is that it curtails the spending power of all "big" clubs. Yes, they'll still get the best, but they won't get "the rest" who are just a little behind in quality, and these players would be at different clubs. You wouldn't get the concentration and stock piling like you have today. And you'd actually get to see teams in Europe that are composed of players that are local. Now, if you beat Arsenal what did you beat ? An English team ? I don't even know what the heck it means anymore.

Agree, angle didn't look quite as acute. I love the passion of the players though!

Based on how he's played this season, I think it's a good move. If I imagined 2 years ago I'd be saying this, I would have slapped myself.

Seriously, who would buy Klaus ? Maybe around the time when he signed his new contract, since he was scoring consistently. But now ? Don't see it happening.

That's not enough. Without specifics it sounds like the whining of someone that wasn't selected. I'm not saying I don't believe him, I'm just saying it's not enough to "pin" it down. If someone in EPO is making money from players being selected, that is something that can be investigated. At least, in a normal country.

Any serious theories on why Tziolis keeps getting selected ? Because it is baffling. Maybe he gives a cut of his wages to EPO and Skibbe ? Need to hire some hackers to look into offshore accounts.

Depends on if he's a starter each week or not. If yes, then it's a solid move.

Marinakis invested in Olympiakos and got lucky with the timing of it. Pre CL there wasn't big money up for grabs. Now, there is, and the money that Marinakis invested payed off big time. ~200 million in CL monies. It started a huge snowball effect where he could reinvest that money into the squad. He did so and we know the result. For the other "big 3" patates tiganites. Good luck catching up now. And now to expect Savvidis, Alafouzos and Melissanidis to pour in say, realistically, 50 million to 100 million to just compete, and this wouldn't be a guaranteed CL entry since first you have to beat Olympiakos and then you have to get through the CL qualifiers (which realistically they wouldn't), why would they do this ? Risk vs reward ? Big risk, more likely than not it wouldn't pay off. And if it did it might only pay off for one year, and Marinakis would spend like crazy. @jvc you said in a post in the U.S. election thread that you can't wait for politicians to come and help you. You have to help yourself. Maybe you should take the same advice and stop waiting for a messiah to come and rescue Panathinaikos.

Where have you been ? Took your sweet time coming over from the old site, ha ha. Good to see another Aris supporter back, and that's coming from a PAOKtzi. I hope you guys do well this season and can get promoted back to the 1st division.

About time you showed your face. You've gone missing. Regarding Klaus I agree 100%. A bench/depth/roation player. Unable to play as lone front man. Might be useful if you play with 2 up front where he is the "weaker" forward and and he could maybe find some space, but as the stand alone forward, just not up to it. Maybe he could become our Paolo Virdis.

No. I'd prefer to keep it a strictly AEK vs PAOK affair. I don't want you winning the bet if it means our NT losing or vice versa. Where is the joy in that ? But PAOK beating AEK, well that is just double the joy. First I get to savour the win in and of itself, and second I get to see your beautiful new avatar.

I don't see this as a valid reason to stop the league. If that's the case, I can just find out the address of every referee in the league, and once a season, pick one at random, bomb it and have the league suspended. I wonder what the life insurance premiums are for a referee in Greece ? EPO should be concentrating on what can be practically done. Security in the grounds, cameras, proper prosecution of offenders. Insisting on life bans. These are things that can be implemented relatively quickly, cheaply and will make a world of difference. You'll still have idiots that commit violence outside of the stadiums but that's not really something EPO or the teams have control over. I don't even know why I wasted 2 minutes posting this. It's not as if it hasn't been said by 1000 posters already.

Crazy town! He's played ~20 minutes as a sub for PAOK in total this season and he gets rewarded like this. Ha ha, what is Skibbe thinking.