pash

Very much enjoyed waking up this morning to an instagram post by PAOK Today saying the Greg Taylor signing was a done deal, followed immediately by a post saying it wasn't a done deal. Such hard hitting journalism. For anyone who hasn't bothered reading this stuff - he apparently has an infant and is iffy on leaving the country, either with or without his family. Celtic apparently also have an offer out to him. I think it's virtually guaranteed that he will re-sign with Celtic for less money, given the facts and circumstances.

He's a big boy, don't lose sleep over it! Greeks tend to avoid strength training; maybe this will inspire him to go the Ronaldo route instead.

Funny how that happens. This is geolocked but if you have a VPN, novasports does have them. Wild that nobody else seems to. https://www.novasports.gr/web-tv/sport/podosfairo/event/fifa-world-cup/video/14240069/ellada-slovakia-4-1-highlights/

You don't drop a player with as much skill as Pavlidis. I'd be more worried if he wasn't getting all these chances. It'll click eventually. Good game all around. VAR would have made this much more one-sided (in our favor). I think once we got out second goal, the Slovaks took their foot off the gas, though. Also happy that the coach gave the three hot shots another start together. They barely know each other, after all; every minute of game time they can get will help them get into a rhythm together. Quoting this to get your attention to ask you about your avatar. Is that your mother? Is she single?

It should be a knock on him; Bakasetas is garbage

Miguel Vitor, who has played for nine (!) years at Hapoel Beer Sheva, might finally be returning to Portugal. Every once in a while I remember that he's been there forever and has even become an Israeli citizen. Oddly enough I can find virtually no interviews with this guy beyond what PAOK posted almost a decade ago. What a cypher!

Bunch of rumors today. Let's start from the top. MIrko Topic - defensive midfielder who plays for Familcao, contract expires in two years. https://www.transfermarkt.com/mirko-topic/profil/spieler/615302 Antoine Makoumbou - also a DM, plays for Cagliari (I think we were very barely linked with their away-on-loan Romanian striker?). His contract is up in a year but at least one site says this rumor is, as Blackhawk likes to say, "Fake News! Sad!" https://www.transfermarkt.com/antoine-makoumbou/profil/spieler/460651 David Jurasek - we were linked with him before, but he preferred to stay at Hoffenheim (where he's on loan from Benfica). He's a left-back, though, so if we get the Taylor then this won't go anywhere. And it seems only some Portuguese press thinks he's even on his way out. https://www.transfermarkt.com/david-jurasek/profil/spieler/500054 As for Sergio Pena, it seems some team from Lima really wants him. We paid very little to get him and it seems Lucescu is dead set against playing him, so logically he should move on.

Seen a few rumors for Kotarski, but most recently was yesterday (Galatasaray), and that they would come to an agreement with the player before making an offer to PAOK. I hope this offer is true, because it would be a nice bit of business for us (10mm): https://inpaok.com/865231/tourkika-mme-ta-vrikan-kotarski-galatasarai/ -edit- allegedly Goztepe wants Despodov and thinks they can get him for 3mm. If the team doesn't have faith in him, then fine, but...this seems like a really low price for someone of his productivity. The Meite thing may be a 1+1 deal according to other rumors.

I thought all businesses only had revenues and no expenses though??? Isn't that common? Are PAOK stupid?!

Schwab seems to be expecting a new offer from the team. Would be just like us to double down on age after what happened last season. -edit- Some pretty impressive numbers. https://www.metrosport.gr/paok-rekor-esodon-tin-teleytaia-dietia-1185437 I think these days most sales get done in installments, so it's unlikely the club has all of that in cash. But, then again, the club also probably will enter into an installment plan for whoever they buy. So no excuse!

Some more rumors... A young CB from Standard Liege: https://www.transfermarkt.us/ibe-hautekiet/profil/spieler/565016 And a player that will definitely never play for us even if we buy him, Vangelis Gravvanis: https://www.transfermarkt.us/vangelis-gravanis/profil/spieler/1058810 Would AEL even sell to us? -edit- and another rumor, as an "anti-Brandon." Typical nickel and diming by PAOK, if this is true. https://www.transfermarkt.com/antonio-casas/profil/spieler/537767

Some rumors lately of both PAOK and AEK (and plenty of other teams) being interested in CB Marcel Ratnik, who plays in the Slovenian league. https://www.transfermarkt.us/marcel-ratnik/profil/spieler/660544 He is 21 years old, already a captain, and extended his contract in November. It is clear that his team intends to sell, but they have said they don't intend to sell him while they're still qualifying for the Conference League (which is code for, pay us even more if you want him now). -edit- Talichmanidis may have a suitor in Olympiakos Nicosia, which is where Brandonjic ended up. If he does go there, expect it to be a free with a resale %. They could not possibly afford him otherwise.

Reports last night that Pavlenka and the club have come to an agreement. I'm guessing we'll see a 2 or 2+1 deal signed, sooner rather than later. -edit- and a new rumor, this time for RB - Jonjoe Kenny, who plays for Hertha Berlin. Perhaps best known for his time at Schalke. Reportedly Gladbach wants him too, but no way he'd be a starter there. https://www.transfermarkt.com/jonjoe-kenny/profil/spieler/258883 -edit 2- one more, this time about our offer to Taison. 500k still seems like a lot https://www.metrosport.gr/ayti-einai-i-protasi-toy-paok-se-taison-1183665 I also saw a few days ago that PAOK is offering Meite 1.2mm, which is not enough to satisfy his demands. Benfica also has to be dealt with, as well.

Wow, good age, plays a lot of games, hasn't been convicted of murder. I was going to ask what the catch was, but it seems he's simply about to be a free agent. Just a matter of offering a higher salary than the others. Here's a short highlight reel:

For country coefficient points, gotta be most valuable to get the Austrians followed by the Czechs right?

Weren't the Tanzanians also claiming some team in the premier league wanted Samatta? Guy will be lucky if he rides the bench at Paphos.

Really a super poor return on Tsiggaras, if this 350k ends up being the case. Basically 140k for us: https://www.metrosport.gr/tosa-dinei-i-pogkon-ston-atromito-gia-ton-tsiggara-to-ofelos-toy-paok-1182271 Granted, Pogon isn't exactly swimming in money. I think there were rumors that Garcia was leaving Atromitos too, so maybe he wants to get out as well.

Lucescu's willingness to torpedo his entire season because he doesn't get a few average-quality players he has a crush on will be studied for decades.

And that's game. Well done by the boys. Very impressive pressing play by them, and much better ball control than I expected to see. Big props to our keeper for some huge saves as well.

Goal! About two minutes of stoppage time remaining Our goalscorer managed to hurt himself in his celebrations

Penalty against Max's son 😞 -edit- now VAR is calling the ref back to check for a possible earlier infraction by an Oly player -edit- no penalty! -edit- PENALTY for us in the last possible minute (120) - let's see how this goes

93rd minute and still 0-0. Olympiakos with a corner kick. Let's see if this makes its way to penalties

I was wondering the other day if Mythou would get a call-up. I don't know that this is "confirmation" of that, but perhaps he'll get a chance to show his stuff. Only a handful of games for the B team last year (six, actually) with no goals - but 15 goals in 20 games for the K19s. https://www.sdna.gr/podosfairo/1314719_mythoy-o-beniamin-toy-paok-kai-gemato-prokliseis-kalokairi I wonder what other players will get a shot in the preseason training camp. I will note Tsaousis's contract is about to be up, which I think makes it inevitable that he will be a free agent. I'll note we also have Deligiannis (not many games) and Sinanaj (many games) also in the B squad, as possible left backs.

Yeah. These are the same sources that reported a week ago that this same meeting was very good and they came to an agreement on what next steps were, and Lucescu provided his asks for new players. This is quite the about-face, if true. Like if you "knew" that had happened, why would you now claim something completely different happened? Ohhh yeah the clicks. Forgot about those.

And now today plenty of articles saying Lucescu had a fiery disagreement with Savvidis in their meeting. Guess we will have a full summer of "will-they, won't-they" coming up. Taison and Schwab's futures rely on this outcome!