paokarag4

The biggest difference is Tsimikas was able to perform and show what he can do on the European stage. To the kid's credit he played very well and earned that transfer. We as a team over the last 2 seasons have failed in Europe and haven't been able to showcase our players in the Champions League or even the Europa League. If an offer comes around 6mil I agree we will take it, seems like a fair transfer everything considered although I'm not so optimistic we will get that type of money.

Agree it's a massive signing for him and Greek football. He is the 2nd Greek I believe to play for Liverpool after Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who went to Liverpool just as they were entering one of their darkest times in recent memory. This transfer has a far different feel to it. He will be given games, Robertson essentially only had the 34 year old James Milner (who is a midfielder) as cover over last season. So you would think he will get his chance in at least 15-20 matches across the season. Then it's up to him to prove himself and perform well. It won't be easy to dislodge Robertson but regardless even being his back-up is a pretty big deal. Congratulations to him and good luck!

Listening to radio from Thessaloniki, it seems a lot of people rate Insua and think we should've gone hard for him. Especially if we end up selling Giannoulis. Can't say I saw much of him except when we played them, he seemed okay nothing hugely impressive but again that's based off of a few games.

Damn, tricky draw. Are we sure it'll be Toumba? I saw something similar but I thought all one legged qualifiers would be at a neutral venue

Mystakidis at left wing back, setting up Mak for the 1-0 win in Dortmund ? I don't mind the formation, it seems to have worked in the derbies and tightened us up defensively. The issue is we aren't scoring with that system. I think for the Champions league qualifier it will be good given it's one game. Make sure we keep it tight at the back and don't concede, force the game to extra time and even pens if we have too. Based on what we've seen in the last few games of the play-offs and the Atromitos friendly this formation is going to see us struggle across the whole of a season. Hopefully it's just the players still learning the formation and it clicks at some stage, but I like it for derbies and European matches against "bigger" more fancied teams

Really unlucky, played well (except for some patches where some slack passing allowed Wolves to win the ball high up the pitch and cause problems) had more than enough chances to grab one goal and probably should've been 2. That's the way it goes, unfortunately it's an all too familiar tale for Greek teams in Europe. Fwiw I think Wolves pen was there, poor from Alain a double mistake as soon as his touch got away from him he should've stuck to his line, he had a rush of blood.

A 2nd player has tested positive to COVID and has been left home instead of travelling to the pre-season camp with the rest of the team. Not sure who the player is yet, he hasn't been named. Hopefully they recover quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if a few more cases pop up now given the nature of the virus, how easily it spreads and it's incubation period can be a few days or longer.

He did retire at 30, he was quite injury plagued from memory but his best football was quite good. I know he was involved in a coaching capacity at Iraklis and obviously in the last few seasons in Switzerland. There looks like there was a few years that are unaccounted for between his retirement and his days at Iraklis, so maybe you're right.

Giannis Amanatidis the former Frankfurt captain and Ethniki player has been announced as a new assistant coach. He will be in charge of the teams attacking play as he has been the last year and a half with Swiss side St.Gallen. For what it's worth St.Gallen this season has scored 78 goals, the most in the Swiss league. https://www.sport24.gr/football/omades/Paok/paok-sto-texniko-tim-o-amanatidhs.5738364.html

Arsenal beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final 2-1 to win it. Sokratis came off the bench in the 88th min, there was 10 mins of stoppage time so he played around 12 mins total. Nice that he gets to be partt of a cup winning team in England. He's now been a cup winner in Germany as well as in England. Whether he's there or not next season, we'll see but if he's not at least he signs off winning a cup.

They'll have to move quick, given the draw is in 10 days time. Can't see it happening, if the rules in Dutch football is goal difference then it's hard for them to overturn that decision. Even in this crazy year with COVID and everything.

Looks like Schwab has touched down in Thessaloniki and will be doing his medical and hopefully signing his contract today. In other news it sounds like we've rejected Besiktas's offer of 2-2.5 million for Akpom. It remains to be seen whether they come with an improved offer but apparently they are struggling financially so not sure how much higher they can go.

I'm reading this offer is quite a bit less than what he received prior to the playoffs. The bonus was also set at playing 15 games not 70%. He knocked that offer back apparently wanting a guaranteed contract of 2 years instead of the 1 +1 option. If that is indeed the case then it's hard to imagine him accepting this new offer, I think sadly we've seen the last of Vierinha at PAOK and if that's the case it's a shame the way it's all ending and a little surprising.

The guy's stats are very impressive, 9 goals and 10 assists this season coming from midfield are fantastic numbers. Obviously you can't judge a player purely off the numbers but those are promising stats for sure. Very un-PAOK like if this indeed gets done within 48 hours of his name coming to light, very good work by the club and Rebbe. Hopefully this is a sign of things with regards to transfers, deals get done quickly and we move onto the next. Obviously you can't control every situation and players do tend to shop around but picking someone up like this who is a proven performer in a "lesser league" (even though in reality Austria is probably not far off, if not at the level of the Superleague) is exactly the type of business we should be getting done quickly.

Reports circulating in Turkey are saying UEFA don't want Greek teams to play Turkish teams due to the current tensions relating to Agia Sofia being turned into a Mosque and other issues. It appears this would apply to whichever Turkish team is in the 2nd qualifying round be it Trabzonspor or Besiktas. All this is unconfirmed at this stage by UEFA but it remains to be seen, the draw is set for the 10th of August so I guess we'll be finding out relatively soon.

Ela re pash, you've followed PAOK long enough! My theio came up with this in a kafenio is a perfectly believable and reliable source!!!

Paschalakis and Ingason remain in doubt as they didn't train today. Zivkovic's last 2 games against Aris he has copped 7 (for Xanthi) and 4 when we played them earlier this season, so despite their concerns I'm low-key worried that Zivko gets PTSD when he sees an Aris shirt ?

I didn't expect this to happen, massive props to AEK. I don't think any other team in Greece (PAOK included) would've taken the high road, regardless of the reason. It could potentially be a huge step in the right direction for Greek football and as Dutch said hopefully it's the first of many instances of sportsmanship in the league. On the topic of sportsmanship, something that I feel must be mentioned and phrased is OFI's, guard of honour for Olympiakos. I know Olympiakos is truly hated in these parts (Im not a massive fan either) but it's the attitude that needs to be had towards opponents, respect not hate. I realise that's probably a pipe dream given the type of people that run Greek clubs but there is maybe just a speckle of light at the end of the tunnel. We are truly lucky AEK chose to go about things the way they have. A bonehead mistake like that deserves to be punished. We are counting our lucky stars and we maybe CL bound.

Have the health cards been renewed? Seriously though we really shouldn't blow it from here, I heard Aris will have 11-12 players available for the game. Souso has an injury concern and Fetfatzidis won't play because he's getting married the day before.

He's been loaned out for next season to promoted Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. Big year for him and his career, the chance to play in the Bundesliga, he's 22. Time to stop being a talent and step up and cement his spot as a starter in one of Europe's top leagues. Hopefully his body holds up and he is able to have a big season. https://www.sport24.gr/Basket/germania/mayropanos-anakoinwthhke-o-daneismos-toy-sthn-stoytgkardh.5732562.html https://www.goal.com/en/news/mavropanos-signs-arsenal-contract-seals-loan-stuttgart/1oj39nu7ctlmz1877lpaemua52

amateur hour honestly, what the hell is wrong with the club? If AEK pursue it which is their right to we are done and the last 2 games would've been for nothing, how hard can it be to make sure such a logistical thing is in order? If we lose this game sta xartia, I'm done with Greek football I try to just focus and follow on the on-field stuff but that is literally impossible with all the crap that goes on in this league. I'm furious what a big big big m*****a

You can't build your team around youth, it can't happen not in Greece and not at PAOK. The fans won't accept a season where we lose games and aren't contending for the title, there will be issues. It's a reality of Greek football. I know Panathinaikos has gone down that road but it's been years of poor management and debt that has led the fans to kind of fizzle out (for the time being) PAOK fans won't sit there silently if a core of 7-8 guys under the age of 22 play and we lose 10-12 league games there will be chaos. I think the perfect balance is what we have going atm, start 2 of the young guys, have another couple on the bench and have experience around them it's the best of both worlds.

Definitely did not expect us to win this, huge result! It keeps our fate in our own hands, 2 draws in our last 2 games and we are in the Champions league. Beat AEK and it's all over with a match to play. That won't be easy to do AEK atm is the most inform team in the league. It'll be interesting to see if Abel sets up with the 3-5-2 again, it worked today and worked well. If we lose to AEK I look forward to 4 days of conspiracy theories of how Olympiakos will let AEK beat them, so we don't get 2nd ?

Jaba and Crespo have been training fully for a while. With 5 subs they might get some mins off the bench just to re-introduce them to competitive football ahead of next season. Wernbloom is the strange one, I thought once Augousto went down and he still wasn't making the squad he was done for but he's back in now so I have no idea what's going on.

Whoops, that did not age well at all for our garlicky friend ? That's a huge result, so sad to see that these m*****es still pollute Greek football. I don't know if we keep those 7 points as the case goes back to EPO to actually go on trial in the correct manner, not just them accepting the decision of Augenaki and his koumbaro. All I ever wanted was a fair trial, if we've done wrong punish us. Unfortunately in our beloved Ellada that isn't possible, only witch hunts. I'm interested to see how all of Olympiakos trials play out, there's quite a few if I'm not mistaken?