pash

They must be planning something seeing as how they didn't give warda's number to Mak

And here's the lineup for today's match. I really hate these animated tweets. This one won't be shown on PAOKTV, will it? Behind Closed Doors could mean so many things!

Talk about being thin on defense. Though I actually kind of like the idea of a Poungouras/Dimitriou duo. This team does not look like a second string team; this is more like a set of third stringers. I had to do some research to figure out what position most of these guys play. Δημητριάδη - AM Δημητρίου - CB Χατζηδίμπα - CM Τζοβάρα - CF Τσαούση - LB Γκαργκαλατζίδη - CF (excellent name btw) I'm really not sure how this team would line up...I don't see any right wingers there, and our glut of CFs implies to me that we'll see a 4-4-2. Maybe something like the below? --Siampanis-- --Konstantinidis--Poungouras--Dimitriou--Tsaousis-- --Kace--Hatzidibas-- --Pelkas-- --Limnios-- --Koulouris--Klaus-- As for the injuries - it sounds like all three injuries (Crespo in addition to Dutch Eagle's post) are very minor and the players are being held back so as not to risk them. I'm not worried yet.

Yeah, I can't see him playing at all, esp once Glykos comes back. Hugo Nervous coming up as a consolation candidate if the Zabrano deal doesn't go through: https://www.transfermarkt.com/hugo-nervo/profil/spieler/107503

Agreed, if we somehow lose two goalkeepers in the next three months, I'd rather take my chances with a K20 keeper.

Some more news: Pashalakis is about to be announced, on a one-year deal. Melissas will be loaned out to Lamia El Kaddouri is also on our radar, as a #8 that will presumably enable Stanojevic's 4-4-2. https://www.transfermarkt.com/omar-el-kaddouri/profil/spieler/73097 Currently plays for Empoli, which is in Series B and presumably has to offload some of their more expensive players. Not sure how much of a deal we'd get on this guy (if any). He's also represented by Mino Raiola, interestingly enough. Jairo may not end up in Serbia after all; seems that he's also linked with Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova. Buy out set at 500k.

From what I understand, Warda left Mykonos (where he was on vacation) for Egypt in order to get a visa to play for that Saudi club we're loaning him to. After arriving in Egypt, he turned off his phone and could not be located by anyone (his future club, his family, his agent) for two days. Naturally the Saudis are very unhappy with this, so the loan itself is now up in the air. If true, it bodes the question...what is up with this kid? I have a feeling that a club like Panaitolikos would have put up with his bullshit since it's hard for a team of their means to get players as talented as he is...and that they would have cut him a LOT of slack. But when he came to PAOK, it seemed to come as a surprise to him that not only are we willing to discipline him, but that we have multiple players who are very easily as good as he is (and thus have the will to kick him to the curb). Must have come as quite a shock to our little Pharaoh. -edit- and as soon as I wrote that, I read that the Saudis have indeed cancelled the loan. Now he's linked with Feirense, in Portugal. Amazing that he could F*** up his way into an even better deal/club.

Wild that they're already up to 18 games

I agree, assuming the coach uses them. He's made the right noises about that (it's practically criminal that Cimirot was playing at the end of last season; he was a walking corpse)...we just have to see if Stanojevic will make good on that promise. Personally I'm doubtful; the vast majority of coaches settle on 13 or 14 players and will only alternate when a disaster has struck.

Haha you just beat me to it. This was pretty good. Interesting that Michel was in the tunnel wishing them luck.

Let's not forget - this nearly happened to Tudor in the EL with us, vs that Belorussian team. Fortunately then, as now, we had Mak for the home games. Potential future employers should perhaps consider his tendency to not prepare sufficiently for easy away games. Regardless, I'm just as confident we'll make the group stage as I was that we'd beat Olimpik. We've got two more weeks of training, two more weeks to get our mojo back. For the first game, we'll be completely fresh and should have every important player available. We've got this.

Surely Mak will eclipse Salpingidis this season. What a time it would be for this to kick start Klaus' scoring again (which it won't, I know)

Anzhi in the mix for our Peruvian target (Samprano? Sabrano? I forget his name already) Partizan might be interested in Jairo. I say sell him, and sell him quick!

We have Ostersund. Good result for us.

AEK vs Brugge

PAO gets Athletic Club Bilbao

Here's the live stream, it's just beginning: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2018/draws/round=2000889/index.html

Looking at the teams in the play off round, and also at the teams we know will be going right to the group stage, it appears that we are the 14th ranked team in the EL (assuming we make it through the play off). In other words, we need to hope that two of the teams ranked above us in the below list get knocked out in order to place us in the #1 pot. Maybe some combination of Partizan, AEK, and Panathinaikos will do us a solid? Zenit Saint Petersburg CC: 87.106 Dynamo Kyiv CC: 67.526 Ajax CC: 67.212 Athletic Bilbao CC: 60.999 Fenerbahçe CC: 51.840 Milan CC: 47.666 Viktoria Plzeň CC: 40.635 Red Bull Salzburg CC: 40.570 Club Brugge CC: 39.480 PAOK CC: 35.080

The AIK game looks like it's heading towards PKs... I'd prefer a Croatian team. Would help the league more in the long run while giving us an easier pair of games. -edit- AIK has lost. As usual I am the kiss of death

Korovesis officially announced by Platanias (2 years). Good luck to him; I thought he was a decent player but he just wasn't at the level we aspire to.

Here's the press conference. Third question goes right to Vieirinha, haha -edit- whoops, forgot to add the link:

Anyone have a radio stream for this?

I'd argue that even having Pelkas there would have done the job. I just don't think our team (or many teams, even) know how to play without someone there pulling the strings. As for Crespo, he might end up better. I thought he was just fine last year.

Yeah we are, though I believe if we make it through we'll end up in the second pot for the group stages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017–18_UEFA_Europa_League#Play-off_round

And that's game. Still disappointing that we didn't score more, but it was a relatively easy win. We'll be seeded in the next round.