Bananas

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.

Great, that's what we need more delays. At this rate, once you factor in the play-offs, we'll be seeing so many games getting played in such a short time, it will be ridiculous.

If you think we are extremely poor, I'd like to hear your opinion on the other teams in the GSL. I'll summarise for you :- 1) Brkic GK - Bought to replace Glykos but unusually Glykos has been playing well. Good backup to have nonetheless and if Glykos returns to his old ways or gets injured he is our main backup. Not a waste of a transfer. 2) Crespo CB, LB - Bought to add depth to the defense. Can play both CB and LB equally well. Was our best player against Panionios last week. Good transfer. 3) Varela CB - Bought to be the main CB along with Tzavellas. Currently behind in the pecking order in my opinion. Still has more to prove his worth. 50/50 on this one. Was the only guy we paid money for at 1.4 million. 4) Matos RB - great transfer. Two levels above Skondras and Kitsiou. 5) Canas DM - good transfer. Clearly the best DM in the squad. So far I have covered mainly defensive positions. Our defense has been awful the last few seasons and very inconsistent. So far this season the defense has definitely tightened up. Olympiakos has the best defense in the league statistically at 4 goals conceded. PAOK has 2nd best at 5 goals conceded. I believe all of the above transfers were solid with the possible exception of Varela who it's still a bit too early to judge. His man marking is good but his positioning seems a bit off. 6) Shakhov DM/CM - 50/50 on this one. He's just ok. Nothing special at all. End of the day if you're playing 2 in the middle Canas and Cimirot are the best. Shakhov is ok for squad rotation. Does lots of running without being exceptional. Doesn't really add anything to the squad but not terrible either. 7) Biseswar ACM - Technically 2 levels above most players in the squad. Can't play 2 games in a row. Massive fitness issues. Good signing overall but not a player to base a season on since the only thing you can guarantee about him is that he won't be able to play all the time. You have to treat him with kid gloves. 8) Djalma RW - the special one. Can dribble but can't score. Showed his potency and stupidity against Olympiakos. Still I don't think we have better in his position. Overall, not a good signing. Not because of how he plays, but because of the hype that he is the next Mak and because of the fact he is the highest paid player. No hype and half the wage and we'd be happy to have him for squad depth. 9) Thiam - pointless so far. And there you have it. Basically the only proper attacking threat up front that is semi consistent is Rodrigues. Djalma, Biseswar and Klaus, what you get each week depends on what sacrifice you made to the gods. If they all happen to be fit and in form we wouldn't have problems up front. But that is a pipe dream. Ain't going to happen. The team has improved a lot in the back 3rd and in the middle 3rd in my opinion. In the attacking 3rd there is little creativity other than Rodrigues going on his mazy runs. Nullify him and you've killed half our game. The rest are bereft of ideas on a consistent basis. The greek boys Pelkas, Charisis, Mystakidis, Korovesis overall very disappointing. Complacent almost. The squad needs firepower up front. As simple as that. Biseswar and Djalma are not players to win you games week in week out.

Ha, I wouldn't be surprised. Οπως ειπε ο Χαρρυ Κλυνν “Θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα θα ...”

So the story says. Like all things PAOK and media related, take it with 10 trillion grains of salt. I'm not against us getting a player in such a manner, what I'm against is the fact it would be such a short term solution. If say we were really in contention at the winter break, and needed him for depth, just in case, cool sign him for a year. But that's not the way it sounds to me. Given we're going to be in the play-offs anyway, may as well give a lot of time to Koulouris. I don't think the kid has got it, but who the hell knows these days. Having said that, all of the Greek boys have been disappointing so far. Pelkas has hardly played. Mystakidis is just ... I don't know he's just a bit off. I don't think he's first 11 material. I'm not seeing that fire in the belly that he had last season. Likewise Charisis who was doing well last season when paired up with Cimirot in the middle and this season he's just a bit off. He was poor on the weekend. Kitsiou another. Korovesis another. Only Malezas has kind of fought his way back into being seriously considered for a starting position.

Oh yeah, he even shaved.

@PAOKSWEDEN have you seen this ? http://inpaok.com/326932/παοκτσάκια-στη-σουηδία/

Here we go. If there is truth to this, just kill me now. A 33 year old, soon to 34, will be our saviour. http://inpaok.com/326908/στο-κάδρο-ο-ματέους-για-παοκ/

Amorgos, thanks for being a man and sticking to the terms of the avatar bet. Now, if you are interested, we can have another when we play you guys in Athens. I've already found a few possibilities, ha ha.

Ha ha.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think Alafouzos is going to deliver PAO to the promised land. But until a real contender shows themselves, it's all you have. I haven't seen any real evidence that anyone else is interested. And as for the V family, if they want it, come and take it! They could if they wanted to, there is no need to beg them or kiss their asses.