pash

Congrats to your boys! What positions do they play?

Well there we have it. As expected, Europa League qualifiers!

There go my fantasies of getting our little boy back: https://inpaok.com/863791/sto-stochastro-tis-benfika-o-giannoulis-pic/

Most sites seem to still be saying Lucescu will stay, but it seems there was a link building with Albert Riera, who coaches in Slovenia. I don't know much about the guy apart from generally remembering that he played for Liverpool, but I'm guessing the genesis of these links is that he was with Olympiakos for a while (and so presumably knows Greece). https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1312922_ti-anaferoyn-sti-slobenia-o-paok-i-tselie-kai-tilefonima-gia-ton-riera

Every goddamn year we hear about them wanting to enlarge this dumb league. Let me guess, we'll still have a playoff, but it'll last until end of May? The rationale re: the issue with their transfers is absolutely absurd - aren't these also the same teams that don't have the money to buy expensive players, and should be relying on domestic talent? https://inpaok.com/863701/super-league-sto-trapezi-i-afxisi-ton-omadon/

God I love the season of rumors. Seems Florinel Coman does not want to return to Qatar, not does he have a future at Cagliari. Reportedly we tried to get him a while back from Steaua but their owner put a stop to it. Perhaps now is the time? Good age, though he's got two more years on his contract, so probably won't be cheap. https://www.transfermarkt.us/florinel-coman/profil/spieler/340982 Of course, commentators now saying Benfica won't stand in the way of Meite leaving (as if that wasn't clear at this point): https://inpaok.com/863664/portogalika-mme-i-benfika-den-tha-einai-ebodio-gia-meite/ And I'll leave you with yet another piece on the team wanting to get younger - which, again, I'll believe when I see. Maybe the most mind-blowing stat here is that the average age in Europe was only slightly less that of our average age domestically, which is extra funny when you consider how many old players we did not register for Europa League. https://inpaok.com/863683/o-gerasmenos-paok-kai-o-stochos-tou-kalokairiou/

Just in case we were starting to feel TOO GOOD about how we beat AEK: https://inpaok.com/863639/apistefto-i-deav-timorise-tin-touba/

Lmao of course he wants Taison back, as if you thought this would go anywhere else. https://inpaok.com/863613/skepseis-gia-paramoni-taison-meite-ston-paok/ Not that I don't love Taison! But people need to make these "hard" decisions, and unfortunately the team is run solely based on vibes and sentimentality

I would be SUCH A GOOD destroyer, falling over because I had a heart attack after jogging for ten seconds and accidentally breaking up an attack in the process

BUT THEIR JERSEYS!!!!

A million is peanuts, considering what we spend on players we have no intention of playing... The articles today are focusing on how Lucescu had his meeting with Savvidis, and how the team is aware of the need for Greek players, as well as reinforcements along every line (defense, midfield, forwards), etc etc. I am sure all of them got the info from the same source, of course. The team also just hired that Greek guy that was in Madrid's academy system (https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1307001_panagiotis-tsiknas-o-ellinas-analytis-tis-real-madritis-sto-dromo-toy-paok), as an assistant to Karypidis. Vieirinha expected to get a job somewhere in the administration as well. Team plans to ask Otto to make a decision soon, which of courser he won't because we have no leverage. Pavlenka probably will be re-signed as he seems to be interested in staying. For the B team - a few Nigerian kids, one of which I believe we spoke about a few days ago: https://inpaok.com/863580/o-paok-v-epimenei-stin-afriki/

You got off lucky bud; these sleezy lawyers can easily take you to the cleaners!

I am just now realizing that AEK has not won a "league" match since Feb 23. Incredible. They had a win in their second leg vs Olympiakos (where it proved impossible to overturn the first leg), but every other match since Asteras Tripolis was a loss. Doesn't this make it even more pathetic that we only barely managed to end the season ahead of them? If we had beaten Kallithea in the last match day, we would have ended this season in second place. Ugh.

^ Lucescu's classic "he doesn't know what I am looking for" nonsense.

I will live to be a hundred before that happens, mark my words. I think it was kind of an "extreme need" last season to have enough Greeks too, and we still failed to do it. At some point we need to promote from the B team. I say start Shola at LW and promote an understudy to ride the bench and get garbage time minutes. It's wild to me that we can be SO EXCITED when we have home grown players like Koulierakis do well, but completely fail to understand that you can't identify those people without actually playing them. Like, Koulierakis basically only got time because Lucescu was forced to play him due to Michailidis' injury. And if I recall correctly, Michailidis - who was Koulierakis before Koulierakis - only got a chance to show what he could do when the three journeymen before him failed to stay healthy. Ugh now I'm all worked up.

The funny thing about Meite is that there was some "talk" online about how Benfica just really wanted to get rid of his wages. Kind of funny considering how outrageous their buy-out clauses are. If there are no buyers, I could see us taking him on loan (with that wage) through the end of his original contract. It's a much tougher sell when you have to also put millions more down on a player... I agree with what you say above though. And between Schwab and Ozdoyev, I'm a Schwab guy. Better leader, and just as skillful. -edit- Just saw this, unrelated to the above. Don't want to spam with new posts so adding as an edit. https://inpaok.com/863404/o-paok-krataei-ton-balnte/ He came in on a one-year contract; I think it's a bit much to expect him to get promoted to the first team, but perhaps we'd see him in the B team. Nice numbers, though - 9 goals and 4 assists in 22 matches. Just on those stats, you'd think the team would want to retain him.

That kid has a much better chance at success being born literally anywhere else, but okay. Anyway, to take stock, here are a list of players who have expiring contracts. This is the ideal situation for a reset, as we all know. This is nearly 40% of the squad, by the way. Vieirinha (retired) Taison Schwab Ozdoev Meite (loan, unknown buyout) Colley Otto Samatta Bakayoko Wieteska (loan, buyout of 1.5mm) Thomas Pavlenka Balomenos There have been rumors of us re-signing Pavlenka, which seems odd considering we just hired the Georgian kid. This must mean Balomenos will go free, though. He played ten times for the B team, but we have four other (and younger) keepers in that squad too. Would any of you re-sign any of the above? I have no idea what Meite would cost, but I'd guess Lucescu will push for him. I feel he will want to re-sign as many of these guys as possible, actually which is a huge mistake. I doubt Otto will stay on, as well. The early rumors I heard were not encouraging - that they will be targeting a "free agent" RB as a "plan B." If you look at the current free agent RBs on transfermarkt, there are very slim pickings. There are a gaggle of better options that will be available after June 30th, however. One that is notable to me is Milan Gajic, who is a Serb that may be departing CSKA Moscow (https://www.transfermarkt.com/milan-gajic/profil/spieler/245030). I will also note he has a +1 option on his contract, which would be enacted upon mutual consent.

The streams were staying up to show it, but I moved over to the PAOK one just in case. Here's a link if any of you haven't seen it yet:

Lamela and Kedziora have been s%$#! talking each other for most of the first half. Hopefully they don't both get the boot.

Holy s%$#! is that a goal of the season contender? With his off foot??

If the score is favorable, Vieirinha should play as a winger so he doesn't make the score UNfavorable, thank you very much

Even Santos is being flown in to watch the celebration 😭 https://inpaok.com/862954/erchetai-gia-to-antio-tou-vieirinia-o-santos/ And we'll have a special kit for this one, it seems. Maybe one of the Molto era styles?

Just wanted to slip in a dig against your fav domestic team, huh? I'm here for it babe

Seems it would be a silly move for him career-wise but 20 million is a perfectly acceptable price for me. https://inpaok.com/862867/diapragmatefseis-zenit-gia-konstantelia/

so what you're saying is, he's learning his lesson Looks like Dimitris Hatsidis is now training with the senior team. If I'm reading this right, he was promoted mid-season to the B team, has played 11 games, scored once, and gotten one assist. Must have been playing second fiddle to Hurtado, who of course will not be kept on. https://www.transfermarkt.com/dimitrios-chatsidis/profil/spieler/1075793 I wonder if we'll see him at the preseason camp. Guess it depends on if Razvan likes what he sees this week.