pash

Pena back to Sweden? I have some doubts, not because he seems unhappy - but because the Swedish tax system makes a second contract look very painful for him, financially. https://inpaok.com/861472/o-penia-skeftetai-tin-epistrofi-sti-malme/

And now an about-face: https://inpaok.com/861492/o-loutseskou-epelexe-na-synechisei-stin-touba/ Lots of time for things to change, of course.

Despodov apparently went to Bulgaria to get a shot for his toe. I wonder what's going on there.

Have had this in my watch later playlist for a while, just got around to watching it. Kind of interesting. But I think the guy who made it is vastly overstating how most football was played - very few teams have Messis, after all. Good points on the wingers and fullbacks, though.

Yeah, but that means PaokCT has to not be defeatist for 30 seconds, which is an impossible task

You're right. That is a VERY high price to buy the kid; he would have had to score like 40 goals to get us to jump on him. I also doubt Lucescu even watches those games; he probably just begrudgingly accepts a handful of B team players to fill out the headcount in the summer training camp and once in a while through the season.

I had forgotten about this guy and his Watford connection, even though I do remember seeing Hurtado in some pictures recently. https://inpaok.com/861135/i-apofasi-gia-ton-ourtado/ 11 goals and two assists in 19 games is pretty badass. His more detailed stats are before - seven of those goals were scored before year-end, and two of them were in the last game. So I guess he did drop off. Three million to buy him is kind of a lot (and I won't comment on the behavioral issue the article claims). Oh well, at least the team avoided relegation. https://www.transfermarkt.com/jorge-hurtado/leistungsdaten/spieler/911946

You could say that about the men's team too haha

Finally found this thread. So after the rumors of Al-Hilal, this pops up: https://inpaok.com/860873/blekoun-loutseskou-me-tin-ethniki-irak/ He's been...very outspoken in his disdain for national team jobs, so I very much doubt this one in particular.

A little bit more about the possible 9 point deduction noted previously. Not super relevant for us either way now, but we are playing them in the next few days. https://inpaok.com/860811/afairesi-9-vathmon-apo-ton-diagora/

This made me chuckle, in light of today's news on the suspensions for Olympiakos and AEK: https://inpaok.com/860509/vasilopoulos-fantazomai-pos-tha-klithei-o-loutseskou-gia-ta-epeisodia-sto-olybiakos-aek-vid/

Here are a pair of rumors I don't really buy, for the same reason on both (age): Cypriot striker. Allegedly has a buy out of 10k. https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1303363_senario-gia-paok-kai-ton-kyprio-epithetiko-haralampoys-diapseydei-i-aspromayri A familiar face: https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1303410_panathinaikos-olympiakos-kai-paok-ekanan-kroysi-ston-mpernar

I forgot to post this earlier, but a handful of other U17 kids got new contracts. But I think we'll see a trickle of these weekly, as I think the team structured all their deals to expire around the same time. Some predictions on what positions we're targeting: https://inpaok.com/860444/o-ilikiakos-stochos-gia-tis-metagrafes-tou-kalokairiou/ expect to see people north of 30 (Lucescu's sweet spot), but it also says we're aiming to drop average age to 25... 🤷‍♂️ left-back right-back (if Otto does not re-sign) CB CM CF winger (I'm guessing LW)

Now this is my kind of lineup!

It would not shock me if this happens, though I think Lucescu should end up in a better league in Europe instead of wasting more of his time in Saudi Arabia. I would MUCH rather he leaves before preseason, instead of having a blow-up at the last second with the administration. https://inpaok.com/860107/mme-aravias-o-loutseskou-tha-ginei-proponitis-tis-al-chilal/ I am very concerned about the blow-up possibility, because I think there will be a ton of resistance to a rebuild from him. But who do we replace him with? It's been noted that we won't attract the best and brightest. But perhaps Garcia would be who they target? Personally, if we go back to the well, I'd prefer Ivic (who will be under contract for another year).

I'm sure Lu-lu only has eyes for Taison anyway. I'd marry PaokCT's sister (who I am assuming looks manlier than he does) for Shola to get some minutes.

I was thinking the same. I doubt Olympiakos will lose any more points (except to us!), so a good showing these next two weeks will be HUGE for us.

This lays out a path to calm - basically a win by us and a loss by Diagoras next match day will be enough to see us through. That will be against Niki Volos on the 12th (though for some reason google's match calendar keeps saying 13th for all these games). https://inpaok.com/859824/ti-thelei-o-paok-v-gia-na-katharisei-me-tin-paramoni/ I wasn't aware of the possible points deduction too; I guess that would seal the deal and mean we only need one win or two draws out of these last three.

Pavlenka would make sense, though I don't know why they'd only want one for a year. The Georgian keeper is a wild choice. Especially if the earlier rumors were that he was going to be our #1. I'm tellin you, he ain't it!

I'm on a twitter blackout, babe! Now you'll have to get over your fear of sharing links and do it your own damn self!

Just so bizarre. How many goalkeepers will we acquire? Who is the backup in this situation? https://inpaok.com/859752/i-provlepsi-sto-symvolaio-tou-pavlenka/

Our next two games are vs Panathinaikos. Four points from that would go a long way towards bringing us to second place.

Wild how bad we ended this. A straight red for that? Get outta here!

Cousin Mitso knew a week ago that Olympiakos was gonna throw a game?!

I put some money on us winning, but if I were smart I would have put money on a hell of a lot of goals haha