paokarag4

Conspiracy time!!! When PAOK rejected RB Salzburg's offer in the summer, the word was that the board/Savvidis promised Konstantelias a new contract with a bigger wage to compensate him for turning down RB's bigger offer. Rumours are that he is on around 500k with us. That was around July (I think), and here we are now in November and there is still no revised contract that has been presented to the Konstantelias camp. So the young man has taken matters into his own hands and is getting "sick" every 2nd week to express his extreme dissatisfaction at the unfulfilled promise.

The only saving grace is that all the other title contenders dropped points. No big team is in good form and have all dropped a huge amount of points considering we are only 9 games in. Aris have probably been the most consistent and that is why they sit on top of the table. Still a long way to go, but I wonder if this is the year we see something crazy happen in terms of who wins the title.... Unlikely I know, but I don't recall a season where all of us, Olympiacos, AEK and PAO had 2 losses each 9 games into the league.

This part I agree with. It isn't uncommon in Greek football to have that trait come out unfortunately but I too am not a fan. The way I see it, Lucescu has similarities to Mourinho in that aspect. Both say outrageous things in the media that drives opposition fans and clubs up the wall, while ultimately deflecting pressure and attention from his team's performance and results. Everyone spends the week talking about what Lucescu said and not about how PAOK churned out an average performance. I am sure if we ever got Razvan on the pod(bring it back?), he would acknowledge that his goal. In terms of being a "saviour" I mean do we need saving? How many trophies do you want before you are convinced he has already saved us by winning one third of our titles in our history.

You really have had it out for Lucescu ever since he booted your boy Warda to the curb for good. Comfortably our most successful coach ever, if he ain't it then I don't think any available and willing manager could come in and lift this team to better results. Also for the record we are equal top in the league. Yes Europe so far has been disappointing, especially the last 2 games but as @Bananas pointed out this is a step up in competition/level and the whole squad hasn't been able to adjust (coaches and players alike). I do realise that you were probably half joking, but I also know you have never been Lucescu's biggest fan. I would point to Pana as an example of a club who knee-jerked into sacking their coach (Jovanovic) off the back of a poor European campaign. Almost a year later they are still chasing their tail and are teetering on the brink of sacking a 3rd coach in less than 12 months. Perspective is also key, we are a Greek club. If Razvan is moved on, I don't think Jurgen Klopp is banging down the door to take the reigns. We have a good coach who understands the club and the landscape of Greek football, as well as having a proven track record of winning trophies. He is by no means untouchable, but he has more than earnt the right to steady the ship.

Tzimas with another 2 goals for Nurnberg in a 4-0 win. Seems he and Nurnberg are starting to find their feet. Exciting for us and hopefully Tzimas can carry on with this form!

We are looking good to be in pot 2 for World Cup Qualifying. The draw for that is on the 13th of December.

Extremely tragic and sad news. I have no idea how the NT and PAO players must be feeling, much less his family and friends. Football aside, he was far too young. RIP George.

Reports from Bulgaria that Despodov is unhappy with his role/playing time and is getting his management to look around for a potential January move. We coughed up quite a bit of $ for him and he still has 3 years to run on his contract, so unless another club stumps up a decent amount of cash it maybe hard for him to get out.

Correct it will be Pavlidis, who has been starting for Benfica since his summer move so he has plenty of minutes in his legs. Jovanovic said that he won't be calling up anyone to replace Ioannidis and he is happy going into these 2 games with Pavlidis and Douvikas as the squads strikers. I guess that probably means it is almost NT career over for Giakoumakis. He hasn't been called up since his move to Mexico (which also coincided with the change in manager).

Rallis scored again over the weekend.

Awful performance, crazy how we looked more dangerous playing against 11 than we did playing against 10. Just no creativity, no drive from any of the players, moved the ball super slow which is the exact opposite of how you need to play against 10. I can't move past the Michailidis error to hand them their goal, a schoolboy mistake at this level and it costs us the game. The dynamic is very different at 0-0 compared to 0-1 when they get the red card. Inexcusable to dive in there and allow your opponent to skip past you. He really isn't fit to tie Koulierakis laces and he will end up being our 4th-5th choice CB by seasons end IMO. Tough slog to qualify now, probably safe to say top 8 and direct qualification to the round of 16 is gone. We'd almost have to win 5 out of our remaining 6 to achieve that. Hopefully we can bank a few wins and squeeze into the 9-24 bracket and head into the playoffs.

We. Apocalypse is upon us.

Rumours already rife that we won't survive the upcoming international break.

And Rallis scored overnight in his first start for Heerenveen, with a great strike!

If you're still interested! https://www.epo.gr/News.aspx?a_id=53968&NewsType=22

The 4 home games will make or break our European Campaign this season. Must win especially coming off the loss yesterday. FCSB beat Riga 4-1 this morning, but Riga is probably (on paper at least) the weakest team in the Europa League. Game is pretty close to a 50-50 IMO, without knowing too much about FCSB. They haven't had a great start to their domestic season, winning only 2 out of 9 so far (4 draws and 3 losses).

Agree with the sentiment in here, we had moments and in games like this the moments make the difference. Some luck at either end of the pitch and the result is very different. Colley was impressive, did pretty well to contain Oshimen who was always a threat. Kotarski is a star, so glad we held onto him, when it comes time to sell we will pocket a nice chunk of change. Overall it is disappointing result but all of our away games are tough (except for the Riga game), a point would have been nice but our 4 home games will make or break our European run. Big one next week against Steaua at Toumba.

Galatasaray with a comfortable 3-1 away win over their rivals Fenerbahçe earlier today. They are 6 from 6 in the league and have now scored 20 goals in those 6 wins. They are a squad choc-full of players with experience from Europe's top 5 leagues Osimhen, Torreira, Batshuayi, Davison Sanchez, Mertens and not to mention Icardi (who I believe is injured and will miss this game), plus plenty more. It will be super tough to go there and get a result, they have quality all over the pitch and are a clear level above the rest of the Turkish league. I agree with Blackhawk, a draw is a good result.

Good win ahead of a big week with 2 massive fixtures. Doubly important since Olympiacos lost to Aris, so we go three clear of them at this very early stage in the season. Great to see Chalov get off the mark, even if it was in strange fashion😅 Hopefully the goals start to come for him now, he puts himself in the right spots, he just has been a little unlucky thus far (until last night!). Aris next week at Toumba, will be tough as it always is and they will be brimming with confidence after their win.

All European matches in Australia covered by Stan Sports!

Lovren is sign, sealed and delivered. A 2 year contract for him. He will the number 6 which he wore at Liverpool.

Agree 100%. Kids coming up through the youth team is different and that has clearly been our best avenue over the last 5 years to getting quality Greeks into the team. They will continue to invest in the academy and if players are good enough they will be given a chance, like Kottas seems he will be given this season. I was more referring to Greeks like Tsiftsis, or Tsingaras, who yes played a role coming up through the academy and had a part to play in the team's successes. But hanging onto these guys for the sake of it because they are Greek was the point I was making. Just to be clear, I am happy with Tsiftsis as our no.2. I was just using him as an example to make my point.

No doubt pash, Tsiftsis was signed as a Z.Zivkovic replacement never a Kotarski one. If and when Kotarski is sold we will definitely be in the market for a new keeper. It would be amazing if Kotarski decides this is where he wants to be long term, but unfortunately I think that is a pipe dream. He is good enough to play in one of Europe's 5 big leagues and based on what his agent was peddling this summer, it seems he has a desire to play in Italy. I agree with you about Greek players in the team, I think it is a big plus if you have quality Greek footballers part of your starting XI. Quality being the key though, give us guys like Koulierakis, Konstantelias, Chatzidiakos if we had been able to sign him. Guys like Tsiftsis, Tsingaras, will always just be depth at a big club and don't really move the needle. I would argue Lyratzis is also in that category, although I hold out a little speckle of hope for him compared to the others. IMO he is more talented, but has spent the last few seasons getting minimal game-time which has no doubt impacted his development. History is full of these types of players, not just for us but for the other big clubs in Greece too. Players who break into the team through circumstance (injury or poor form of someone in their position) and they end up playing regularly for half a season or even a whole season. But ultimately their limitations shine through and they aren't up to the level required of a big 4 club. It is a big year for Michalidis, make or break for him in terms of being a starter or becoming one of the aforementioned depth players.