pash

There are several reasons to think this is nonsense (like how the media likes to assume that Lucescu will hire guys simply because they're also Romanian), but this name popped up today. Considering how late it is over in Greece right now, I'm guessing the Meite offer was not responded to. https://www.transfermarkt.us/razvan-marin/profil/spieler/295183 I'll note that he's also currently on international duty. -edit again- he kind of plays like a better Kace?

Don't worry, I have faith we can handle them better this year. Everybody set your alarm clocks for tomorrow's draw!

Here are some fun facts that nobody will care about: I was curious about Guinea (where our next signing is from), so I read its wikipedia article. It mentions a dictator named Toure, which I'm sure many of you recognize as the last name of many professional players. So I look up the surname Toure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touré), and learn it may be descended from the name Elephant. Perhaps to indicate a person who was big and strong? Anyway, that article mentions the language of the Ghana empire, so I look at that article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Empire). In that, I see that Ghana means warrior, or war chief. And right under that, I see that Wague is a term for nobility. So we basically managed to destroy the career of a king! I tried looking up Kamara and Camara on the same page, and got no definitions. A chat bot I just asked states that those two names are not necessarily related to each other, but that Kamara means "teacher" or "scholar" in some languages. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

I'll take the Red Imps, thanks

The Michailidis extension has been confirmed by the team:

DO YOU PROMISE??

He was given an offer, and (allegedly) a deadline of Tuesday to respond. He apparently is holding out for a bigger deal from the Saudis. Basically a Camara repeat. Saw one of the sites claim that this happened before we took him on loan last year as well, before he finally agreed to join us.

Thymianis has been announced: Good luck to the guy, hopefully he blows us all away. -edit- forgot to include the video:

Ejuke signing with Sevilla. Marcel Hartel to sign with an MLS team.

I asked a coworker who spends a lot more time watching Spanish teams than me: "yeah he blows ass." However, the numbers don't lie here. Both his solid scoring rate, and his age.... Personally, I would not attempt to sign him. I think we can get someone who's younger. It does seem that if this is Lucescu's pick, that he is possibly giving up on the Prijovic "style" (which has now failed with both Oliveira and Samatta). Braithwaite definitely is more dynamic. I'm more concerned with how we'll be getting rid of Samatta and Nasberg, really.

Listen toots, I got hair out the wazoo over here League stage gets drawn at the end of August (the 29th, from what I see)

How could we also forget: Vieirinha refuses to retire and will probably be back for another season. I can only hope that he'll be used sparingly, and preferably as a winger.

From Saudi Arabia, from what I saw online. I don't blame him, but hopefully it doesn't become a big issue. Lots of other names out there too. This is one I am most interested in for now, since we've been without a full-time LW for a long time: https://www.transfermarkt.com/chidera-ejuke/profil/spieler/500067

It's entirely because of the name, right? So for the other Russian guy, we know he's going to be a free agent, so no money goes to Lokomotiv. What happens with this guy? We can't exactly wire money out to Rostov. Would this be a forced loan of some sort? Also - do we really need another left-footed right winger? That would make three.

Apparently we have a fourth friendly about to be announced (in addition to the three previously mentioned); this time it's against Cercle Brugge. Interesting; I literally didn't even know that team existed.

Goncharova has been named our new CEO. I believe she's been chairman of the board since basically the day Savvidis took over, so she's probably a good choice there. No big surprise here.

Uhhh I thought our last loan took him through the end of his contract? Perhaps the invasion means each time he gets loaned out, the contract is automatically extended? Is that even a thing?? https://inpaok.com/823905/o-paok-zitaei-ananeosi-daneismou-tou-kentziora/

Looks like we're about to lose our goalkeeping coach. I think Bianchi was Lucescu's guy, and not the team's, right? Either way, time to start interviewing.

That's a pretty wild ask. Agreed we should move on. Hiring an Olympiakos guy doesn't sit right with me, either. Zaragoza apparently interested in Erik Esposito (who we allegedly are also interested in), and might think of Brandon Thomas as their back up plan. Would be a shame if we sold him to them, though. This guy also popping up today. I think left wing is a big hole for us, we really need to get someone in there. Taison can probably take us through qualifying but it's only a matter of time before he's run into the ground... https://www.transfermarkt.us/felicio-milson/profil/spieler/589374

First official game announced: PAOK vs AEK Larnaca at 7pm (I'm assuming local time), on the 3rd

Serbs are saying we want this guy: https://www.transfermarkt.us/guelor-kanga/profil/spieler/231306 I have a feeling most of these central midfielder rumors are building out a hierarchy of choices - Lucescu might want Camara, but if he doesn't come, I could see us approaching Hartel next. Kanga plays in a worse league and would not be free, so it's hard to see why we'd want him over the other two (and I can't imagine we'll end up getting multiple central midfielders if we've got Meite, Schwab, Ozdoyev, and Tsiggaras on the roster).

From what I understand, Camara really wants to leave Greece (probably related to his loan spell at Roma). I would imagine we'll be his last choice, so I hope we are holding true to the deadline. I don't want us to be jerked around again, waiting for a guy who doesn't want to dangle us in front of other teams so they can snap him up. Anyway, it looks like the Baba Rahman - Brentford rumors are starting up again. If we sell, might mean we move on Giannoulis again. Hopefully he's the same player, if so. Also hot off the press, there's a new rumor that we are interested in Martin Braithwaite, who had a pretty good season at Espanyol this year. His age (32) tells me he'd be a shorter-term acquisition, however. -edit- I should also note that it appears Braithwaite's buy-out clause is only 600k, since Espanyol failed to get promoted.

Another one? I thought he lost his bid for mayor. Conceição (a name I have to google and copy-paste every time) may be heading to France or Italy, after a hell of a run with Porto. He also left a pretty cryptic statement (at least, cryptic for someone like me, who does not pay attention to Portuguese football), as translated by someone on reddit:

That means we are valuing this goalkeeper very high...is this guy that worth it? Is there some buzz I'm not seeing? 300k for 70% of his rights implies a value of around 430k (right in line with Transfermarkt), but Lyratzis could probably fetch 500k-1 million just on his own. They must be really high on Liavas (who's only a year younger than Lyratzis)...

Not a coach or player, but I wonder if Savvidis will try to hire Lubos Michel to replace Gagatsis...