pash

I'm seeing that Douglas Augusto's transfer has finally gone through, for 6.5mm, so we get that 1.3mm from our resale clause.

I'm not sure how I feel about copying that format (league stage). Are we going to end up playing even more games with this setup? I hope not; the season already has us playing too many IMO. I do like the idea of the final taking place much sooner, though. The link also mentions adding a mandatory Greek player, but why stop at one? Imagine how fun it would be if they mandated six per team. Let's prove our academy is the best.

Chalov's non-goal was pretty nice looking. He did that a few times in the season too. Was the kid at the end Lucescu's grandson?

Lucescu trying to make up for lost time by keeping Meite in for so long? Interesting that they haven't announced its acquiring Balde yet

Blackhawk's favorite site is saying the team is pivoting from trying to buy bad players like Cheddira and is trying to actually spend money, on players like Neal Maupay (from Marseille). That one seems like it's particularly nonsense, as Marseille only bought him like a week ago from Everton. He also doesn't seem that great, records-wise.

Albacete's starting LB last season was 37, and is now a free agent. They also have no other "pure" LBs on the roster. This kid is going to play at least 40 games.

The coverage of his helicopter-fueled visit is particularly sycophantic today. My favorite headline so far: "Η ομιλία του Ιβάν Σαββίδη τράνταξε την Τούμπα!" READY TO RUN THROUGH A BRICK WALL THROUGH SANTA CLAUS RAAHHHH

This kind of came out of nowhere, as a rumor. Not sure I'd say better or worse than the other guy. Nantes spent a bit less than 6 million on him, which Metrosport says they are looking for here. I am sure there are much better players available for that price tag, tbh. https://www.transfermarkt.us/mostafa-mohamed/profil/spieler/462348 -edit- The younger Deligiannidis (LB), who I don't think is related to the other Deligiannidis, is joining FC Petrzalka in the Slovakian second division. PAOK likely holds a resale rate on him.

But confirmed by AS PAOK....so how does this not leave us where we were before? From what I can say they only said they "informed the football club," which probably means they're still trying to pull the rug out from under Savvidis.

I think it was due to flares or something thrown in one of the last games of the season. But I don't blame you, feels like a million years ago. Not a great game to have this penalty for, as I'm sure AEL still hates us and will play hard.

Two bits I didn't pick up on when the team announced it (or maybe they weren't written there). First, the Populous site says Kleanthous is going to be "relocated underground" - I'm not sure what that means? I had heard that the team was going to take over the space of that school which is across the street, and a few of the pictures show a substantial underground component to the new stadium - do they literally mean they're going to have a tunnel under there? Seems a weird choice if they're just talking about pedestrians, since the entire surface area looks like it'll actually be quite walkable and nice. It also says the stadium will sit on that 360-degree "podium," and if you look at the below render, you can see the field is even with the outer entrance. This implies that they aren't going to sink the pitch after all. Is this to mitigate the chances of accidentally uncovering an ancient city, I wonder? You can also see the big empty space I mentioned in the last paragraph, under where the people are walking. Surely that's not a tunnel for cars? Anyway, overall, I think I love it. This looks sick. Can't wait to see it, in the year 2153.

Our current roster's size is a little weird. From my count, assuming the team offloads who we think they'll offload, we'll be left with only 22 players? Much less than we usually start a season with (and less than Lucescu's preferred 28). 5 GK: Pavlenka, Luka, Tsiftsis, Monastirlis, Balomenos 3 CB: Kedziora, Michailidis, Lovren, Kottas 4 FB: Taylor, Baba, Kenny, Sastre 4 M: Meite, Ozdoev, Thymianis, Camara 6 F/W: Konstantelias, Pelkas, Taison, Zivkovic, Despodov, Chalov Am I missing someone? I'm not including the handful of K19 and B players that were included in preseason, apart from Kottas who I think will probably make the team. People on the roster but probably gone: Lyratzis, Murg, Soares, Ricardo, Gomez, Shoretire. And there's obviously no certainty that Monastirlis and Balomenos will be there.

First off - you better watch your whore mouth when you talk about my sweet baby boy Pelkas!!! I won't complain too much about getting another LW if we actually get someone who's decent, but I have big doubts there. I liked what I saw of Shoretire, and while he didn't light the world on fire later in the season, I'm not sure that his grand total of 350 minutes of actual game time showed us what he's capable of. Players don't come out of training a fully formed guy; playing keep-away for an hour a day can only get you so far. Hopefully if Shoretire goes somewhere, it'll be to a real country like the Netherlands. Anyway, the team just announced Sergio Pena is hasta luego so at least that's some progress for today.

Kotarski's transfer has been announced, so I guess that gets wrapped up. Jonathan Gomez is still expected to be loaned out, likely to a Spanish team. Hopefully he comes back next year and can replace Baba, who's on the last year of his contract and will turn 32 next summer (which probably means Lucescu - if he's still here - will want to keep him for another six years). For the Cheddira thing, reports are all over the place. Some saying the player himself is who didn't want to move to PAOK, while others say we still need to come to an agreement with Napoli. Who knows. "Underwhelming" is putting it lightly. But I guess if we can't make things work with a proven goalscorer, we should just go straight to the scrub.

As I said to the CT guy earlier, I can't wait until they hire a 34-year-old converted LB as a new winger so that Shola doesn't play for us ever again: https://inpaok.com/867959/oi-skepseis-gia-soretire-kai-metagrafi/ Pathetic. No faith in our most promising young players. These same sites are crowing over our team's average age dropping by like a year. So I guess we'll only be the 3rd oldest team in the world, instead of 1st?

Agreed. Teams don't let their best players just walk. We've got a beggar's mentality over here. Hopefully Shola and Pelkas have career-defining seasons this year. Only way we'll be able to make an impact, as things stand.

This morning I saw PAOK Today claiming the 5 million and 1.5mm as a bonus. Didn't see anything about a resale (though I'd love it if that's true). Ultimately a fair if unremarkable price for him, particularly after a meh season. To those who will complain: he very obviously did not want to be here any more. Sergio Pena's deal was for 300k and up to 150k in additional bonuses depending on his performance (appearances), according to inPAOK. So we lose a little bit of money upfront, but might make a tiny profit when all is said and done. -edit- inPAOK is also quoting the 15% resale on Kotarski, which I am very much a fan of. -edit again- same site reporting we might be linked with Vasco Santos, who is a free agent defensive midfielder who just left Porto's U19 as a free agent. My guess is that if we get him, it would be a B team signing. https://www.transfermarkt.us/vasco-santos/profil/spieler/801453

As always, take with a grain of salt. SDNA says Cagliari wants him for 4mm, which would be a big overpayment considering his contract is up in a year. He showed up last year as a possible acquisition for us too, but probably just because he's Romanian. I still doubt this report. For yesterday's Walid Cheddira stuff - inPAOK says that he's our second choice as CF. -edit- some more fun stuff. Kacper Urbanski appears to be on the outs with his club (Bologna), who has a contract through next year. This one seems unlikely to me. https://www.transfermarkt.us/kacper-urbanski/profil/spieler/699442 Metrosport had a bit on Akpom, saying that while his contract is doable by us (1.5mm), Ajax is looking to recoup a significant amount of money for him, since they paid a lot to get him in the first place. However, they're over a barrel as they obviously are desperate to get rid of him. The site claims (and I agree) that this seems like something that will get resolved very late in the summer, for whoever gets him.

It's being alleged that we were poking around this guy: https://www.transfermarkt.us/walid-cheddira/profil/spieler/521407

My own version of uncle Mitso told me a few weeks ago that "the team doesn't actually have money because all of the player sales mean the money goes to Russia first, then it has to be transferred over." Which is a load of horseshit. Why aren't we BUYING the difference makers?

Taison re-signed and the team posted this, which I think is a pretty solid short. In B team news, Filon (CB) and Goumas (AM) are now moving on to Levadiakos.

InPAOK is saying the three strikers I mentioned up above are all no-gos. https://inpaok.com/867474/kataligei-se-for-o-paok/ Puttering around the advanced search options in transfermarkt gives....well, a lot of options. The only ones that look like they've seen action in several leagues are...well, Vinicius and Petkovic, who are implied not to be on the list. I don't get, though, why 6 million euros are too much for a player. Since when are we that poor? Why are we nickel and diming this transfer period? Super unimpressive tbh...

You may have jumped the gun, there are reports that the Bri'ish are coming for him as well.

Metrosport says these are the three guys on our radar. Anyone strike you folks' fancies? https://www.transfermarkt.us/luka-jovic/profil/spieler/257462 <-- kind of an injury history, decent age and very high wage. Probably knows Andrija though https://www.transfermarkt.us/matheus-saldanha/profil/spieler/740059 <-- wants to leave Hungary, but would not be free. Decent numbers. https://www.transfermarkt.us/carlos-vinicius/profil/spieler/525287 <-- a bit on the older side

If our third choice isn't one of our youth I will rescind my offer for you to date and marry my nonexistent daughter. A few days ago one of the blogs said Lucescu "wants to get another look at" Pena in preseason training. Like, guy, we already know you aren't going to play him. Why would you ruin the chance at a transfer (and just make the player more pissed off)? I think overall the club isn't really improved, but it seems they're at least moving faster. Having Pelkas from the start of the season is big, and Meite actually having the summer to train might also mean we see the version of him from two seasons ago. Who knows, maybe he'll surprise us.