Bananas

If Savvidis let's in G4 unvaccinated and people die from it, he'll get blamed. If he doesn't let in G4 he gets blamed. How can you win ? I am beginning to think PAOKSYD is really a reds supporter in disguise.

Terrible news concerning Oliveira. To be fair I didn't want us to sign him in the first place but he's actually looked pretty decent and kind won me over - at least I don't think he's totally crap and is kind of an intelligent footballer. Our one major signing intended to be in the first 11 and he's injured for at least 6 months. That's just great.

@PAOKSYDI'm thinking of starting a petition for Savvidis to leave. Can you assist with this by signing ? My conditions will be :- (a) he must give the club away for free since I don't see anyone buying it at full value. Preferably he gives control of the club to G4 ultras who combined probably have an IQ greater than Savvidis. (b) any funds required to run the club come from your pocket. Fair ?

I would add pre Savvidis we promised players low wages and still didn't pay them. With Savvidis they actually get paid. Our biggest problem is the poor state of Greek football. If Savvidis was at PAOK 20 years ago I'm sure he would have attracted better footballers. Still he has made mistakes and I'm not going to bother getting into them as what's done is done. What is sure is if for whatever reason he left the club we would regress MASSIVELY. The simple fact is he puts more money in than the club can generate on its own. The club is unfortunately not self sufficient and if he left our budget would be probably 1/3 of what it is today. In layman's terms, we'd be F***ed.

We'll finish second not because we are "second best" but because the other teams in the league are so terrible. Every other team other than Olympiacos has gone backwards or at best sideways with the exception of Aris who to their credit have become quite a competitive team in the last couple of seasons.

The opposite ? So we should be starting later ? Like September ? ? The point is ideally we should be at the teams in the league should have played 3 to 4 matches in the league by the time european qualifiers are played. We need to give our teams the best chance to qualify. I'm pretty confident both AEK and Aris would not have been knocked out if they had more games and match fitness under their belt. As for us, we struggled against a semi amateur team. f***ing shambles.

You’d think by now EPO and the teams in the GSL would have worked out we should be starting our seasons earlier than in previous years. As each season goes by and we drift down the UEFA rankings the qualifiers become key. And the best preparation is starting earlier. Instead we get this like we’re in a monty python film.

What is it with our team and long term injuries. Would love to see that stars on that. Who do we sign now ? Any prospects in the youth ?

Ultras gotta wake up. It’s not the 1990’s or 2000’s when players like Rivaldo, Silva, Giovanni, guys that were still top class came to Greece while still in their prime. Our league is now not even 10th choice for most players. If they can’t sign for a team in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France then they will look at Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Russia, Turkey and then if they aren’t interested in China, Saudi Arabia they will consider Greece. You get my meaning. The gulf in money has become extreme and our league as well as others are suffering for it. The clock can’t be unwound. The teams in the Greek league have to adapt … somehow and make the best of it.

Very handsome. ?

Greek football has been on a downward spiral for a while now and I don’t see how it can be reversed. In the old days (not that long ago actually) you had maybe half a dozen players leave Greece at most. Only the absolute best players played outside Greece. Now they flee at the first opportunity because the money outside of Greece has grown massively. It wasn’t like this even 15 years ago. If it was 15 years ago in all likelihood Limnios, Giannoulis, Tzolis, Pelkas would still be playing for us. There is the beginning of your core group. You build around them and fill in the gaps with quality players. Now ? Anytime someone is even an ok player they leave overseas. I can’t blame them. I’m just saying it wasn’t like this and the quality of our teams was a lot better than today. It’s difficult to make a “team” that can last more than a season or two. Add to that the game has changed in terms of player fitness and tactics and I think the coaches in Greece have been left behind. We are 20th in the UEFA rankings and in all fairness we are where we deserve to be. Our teams get smashed in Europe by teams I’ve never heard of these days.

Overall, that is very good deal. Let's hope that it's true. ?

+1. We definitely need him for certain games and opposition. He has a place in the team. Hopefully Lucescu can get more out of him.

It’s very likely he’ll get pissy for a while. He can’t push it too far though because I don’t imagine Lucescu will stand for it. The best “fix” is if the team is doing well. You will be surprised how envious and jealous players get at not being able to participate in that. As for banging egelzes, I’m sure he can find Russian hookers somewhere that can mimic an English accent. Chuck a wig on them, pack on the make up and he should be good, ha ha. Anyway let’s see what happens.

Looking at the big picture, at some point you gotta make a stand. We get pushed around with most of our sales (and even buys). Olympiacos get the price they want and clubs that want to buy off them know how it is. This didn't just happen overnight. Ultimately, if we don't sell and Tzolis has a good season (and there is not reason why he shouldn't) then we'll get the money we want for him.

Mak and Rodrigues, in other words proper actual real wingers. How hard is it to see ? Instead we have El Khaddori and Zivkovic (both capable and technical but not wingers). Add to their lack of run the pappou club of Kagawa and Diego who both can’t be assed running and our entire attacking line lacks some serious run. Good for playing crappy teams in GSL. Not so good for Europe. It’s a worry.

Well, bit of a surprise result or should I not be surprised ? I guess we'll see in the return leg. Then of course there is the next round which by the sounds of our overall play today we will cop a thrashing. Worrying developments all round. Having one weak position on the pitch is not good, two or more and you're putting yourself in a precarious position. Judging by the comments in this thread it sounds like we had 8 weak positions today. Did anybody play ok ?

Well, we did have Warda ... either way relying on Kagawa who frankly showed nothing last season is a bit of a gamble.

Double damn. It's a real shame as everyone knows he has a great second half of the season. He is also the only player I can think of in the squad that has that "x" factor who on his day can turn a game around. The last players we had that were like that were Henrique and Rodrigues. Yes, you can't rely on them for consistency but on their day they could devastate the opposition. Always handy to have a player like that.

https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-transfer-rumours-paok-christos-tzolis-8189810 Given his poor form towards the end of last season I don’t know if we will will get a better offer than this. Take the money and run.

That’s a @Blackhawkquestion. I know in the year we won the title our wages were very roughly 15 million (not including tax which added another 40%) and our budget was comparable to Olympiacos (although there’s was still a bit higher). Now the tax rate is in the twenties I think so that helps quite a lot. We lowered our budget a lot in the last couple of years (FFP).

It’s risks like these that could be Lucescu’s undoing. And I don’t want that because I really believe if he’s left alone and given an adequate budget he can win us another title.

NFI why we are even trying to sign this guy. He's 34 years old and he scored 1 (yes one) goal all of last season in the Saudi league. 1.2 million is laughable let alone 1.8 million. I am seriously hoping it's all just fake news.

A game that lasts 5 days and has a very good chance that it ends in a draw. Why would you want to mess with that ? ?