paokarag4

He has been a adequate stop gap when we have been short of central mids, but ultimately he doesn't have enough weapons to be a consistent starter at a big club. He isn't a great passer, or driver/dribbler of the ball, he isn't a goal scorer from midfield, he isn't a beast defensively. He works hard but that only gets you so far, unfortunately. His level is probably a team that is 5th-8th in Greece pushing for that final European spot. I for one am happy he is getting a move, kid has wanted to be a starter coming up to 2 seasons now and a move has been mooted for all that time but Lucescu has wanted to hold onto him for cover. I hope he goes well and makes a good fist of it.

I have to agree, both penalties are on the softer end. I can live with the Kedizora one, because the shirt was being held for a considerable amount of time (there is a difference between some tugging and clinging onto someone's shirt who has a step on you, so you hold on for 4-5 steps). The Chalov one, I don't know, VAR sees the stamp and gives a penalty. But IMO it is soft and was a passage of play reminiscent of under 10's with 30 players around the ball and the ball pinging around everywhere. Some contact was inevitable. Regardless we need to improve, it seems we start almost every season very sluggish. International break is only 2 weeks away, take care of Shamrock and have 9 points in the league and it is a good starting point. Can't believe I am saying this, this early in the season but the 2 weeks off will do us good and will allow Chalov and Tissoudali (and hopefully whichever CB and midfielder we sign) more time to gel with the team.

Koulierakis form has been great and what he has been able to do in the terms of goals and assists is quite remarkable. 3 goals and an assist in these qualifiers from a center back is insane. Not even considering his stats from last season. We are holding firm that we will hang onto him until the end of the Europa League qualifiers. Clearly he will go and it will be a blow for us but that money is incredible. I just hope the club, who has known probably for at least 6 months that he was to be sold this summer, has an adequate and quality replacement lined up.

Come on re, how many stars do you want the youth team to produce? Konstantelias, Koulierakis, Tzimas, Michailidis (2 starters and 2 rotation players part of the championship winning team last season) let's add Tzolis and Koutsias both of whom have been sold for a handsome fee in recent years. That is a good strike by world football standards, excluding maybe Barcelona. Look at all the top teams in Europe, how many of them have youth academy products part of their senior squad, let alone getting regular minutes? I would say a similar number or less than what we have. Our academy is good, it's just how it goes with youth footballers. Most end up fizzling out at lower levels. Some end up being solid professionals and if you're lucky you might get a handful of good-very good players who net you a nice profit or become key parts of the first team. I didn't add Tsigaras to the above list, but I should've. He played in 24 games across last season and was a contributor.

I can also confirm this. Although it was the first place I saw a police officer on a horse attempt to crowd control a bunch of Greeks after Heidelberg qualified for a final way back in 2005. So that was nice.

Pash my boy, let me put your mind at ease. Jonny Otto has played large chunucks of his career at left-back. I am sure he even played a few games there for us last season. So if anything goes down with Baba (touch wood) I dare say Otto will be the first point of call to cover at left-back, with Sastre coming into to play at right-back.

Probably the trickiest of all possible match-ups. I think Sparta Prague will get through, but I am only guessing. They have some good European Pedigree, making the round of 16 in the Europa League last season. Anyway, no point worrying about them or Steaua until we take care of Malmo.

Yeah I doubt we see Meite's best football until the end of September or early October at the earliest. He effectively won't be a starter until the season is well and truly rolling. I don't know I feel about him coming after all. I think long term, it will be beneficial, he is a good player and is a nailed on starter when fit and firing. Short-term, he can't and won't help us with arguably our biggest goal of the season, qualifying for the Champions League. I expect the reception from fans to be mixed too, at least initially. If he has a poor few games first up I am sure he will receive plenty of feedback. If the team is rolling along and winning then most probably won't notice his inclusion.

He has been the one rumoured since January to move on at some stage this summer. Koulierakis leaving would mean we would be in the market for a starting level CB. Kedizora, Ekong(?)/Thymianis as the right sided CBs and Michalidis as the left sided one. I don't think Lucescu trusts Michalidis to be the undisputed starter so I think we would be looking to sign someone. I think we all can agree that even if Nasberg remains this season, they don't want him an active part of the rotation. He would be 5th choice and only playing in the case of an injury crisis and or off the bench some cup games.

Last chance saloon for the Men's basketball team tonight against a strong Australia team. The Ethniki must win to have any hope of qualifying to the quarter finals. Apart from Gianni and Toliopoulos (in the 2nd half against Spain), we have struggled to score. A win by 10+ (however unlikely) coupled with a Canadian win over Spain would guarantee we qualify in 2nd. Otherwise we have to win by at least 3 points, and wait to see if we qualify as one of the best placed 3rd placed teams. Going to be a tough game, not sure if we win but I have a feeling we will push them and go close at the very least.

After flying to Konstantinoupoli, Chalov arrived in Thessaloniki via car! Apparently at his own request for some reason but a quick google gives the driving time as over 6 hours. Maybe he just likes road trips 🤷‍♂️ Anyway here he is hanging out with Shoretire and Tissoudali, except him to do the medical and sign the contract when the sun rises in Greece in the next few hours.

Ingason is about to join Panathinaikos according to reports! 1 year after leaving us, to move to Denmark to be "closer to home" at least that's what I recall the media pedalling as the reason he left. He won the league title in Denmark with Midtjylland, and after one season is poised to join PAO on a 3-year 1.2 million Euro a season deal. I am completely blindsided by this move and it just makes me wonder what the real motivation was for his departure 12 months ago. Circumstances can obviously change, but it is a shock to see him returning to Greece. https://www.sport24.gr/football/panathinaikos-metagrafes-kleinei-ton-ingkason-gia-tria-chronia.10350899.html

Agree pash. It also provided players the opportunity to play some minutes who were returning from long term injuries. The ones I recall are Ingason and Michalidis.

After an awful season at Nottingham where he played just 5 Premier League matches and 7 in total across the season. Vlachodimos has joined another Premier League club in Newcastle United. Not sure if this move guarantees him more playing time, Nick Pope was the starter last season for Newcastle before a shoulder injury in December prematurely ended his season. I assume he will be fit again for the start of this upcoming season. Either way, hopefully he becomes a starter for Newcastle and has a good season.

Doncic played in a friendly overnight for Slovenia against Brazil and dropped 32 points. He is playing. We will get out of the group for sure, but Croatia and of course Slovenia will be no easy task.

10 million IMO is what he is worth, whether we get that or not is another issue. I too am worried that he is on his way out, hopefully we do hang on to him for the UCL qualifiers as blackhawk mentioned. Apparently we made a late play for Brignoli, which further worries me because it tells me the club is resigned to losing Kotarski and the player has made it clear he wants to be sold this summer.

Looks like the Tzimas loan to Nurnberg is happening. Just about guarantees we bring in another striker. https://www.paok24.com/podosfairo/500407/ektakto-sti-germania-o-tzimas/

Interview with Poyet below (In English with Greek subtitles) where he discusses him leaving the Ethniki, EPO and the loss to Georgia. Worth a watch, some interesting stuff in there especially some of the politics around EPO and how poorly organised/run the Ethniki still is to this day.

Agree, far from the worst place to be a loaned too especially with an all-time great striker as his manager! Worst case he comes back to us at 19 after having a played a year in Germany (even if it is the 2nd tier) with still plenty of scope for improvement and development. These are the types of leagues to loan too, not within Greece IMO.

Didn't he leave Lucescu's team last year? Unless I am mistaken I am sure he wasn't part of the coaching team this past season. And a quick google confirms it, seems like he worked at Udinese as an assistant this past season. I guess Lucescu's replacement was a good one!

I think it's a good move. He's a good coach, who has worked in Greek football and understands how it works and the culture, that is a big plus. He was unfairly sacked as PAO manager IMO and should probably still be at the helm. He is also being well received by fans (judging off social media) which is a good thing. As we know football in Greece is volatile, so having the fans on side, will help him settle into the role and get the ball rolling.

Surely Hartel is a pipe dream? With the season he just had (17 goals and 13 assists) in Germany's 2nd tier to help lead his team to promotion, he'll have Bundesliga teams banging down the door to sign him. Would be a great signing but hard to imagine him coming to Greece at 28 with those stats.

We are being liked with Mady Camara from Olympiacos who will be a free agent at the end of this month. He had a falling out with them, I believe he posted something on social media about wanting to leave or criticising Olympiacos in someway and did not play in the 2nd half of the season at all. At his best he is a very good box-to-box midfielder who runs all day and can score from midfield. He also adds something our midfield lacks, which is pace. Not sure what sort of Camara we would be getting given he hasn't played for 6 months but on paper it wouldn't be a bad move. Not sure if Olympiacos would intervene and make it hard for him to come but given it seems he and the club have had a falling out I can't see them being successful in any attempts to dissuade him.

As pash said, it doesn't help or alter anything for the coming seasons (24-25) European places, they are set. But their win means Greece moves to 15th place in the rankings and for the European season 25-26 we will have 5 teams in Europe. Top 2 will play Champions League qualifiers, 3rd and 4th Conference League qualifying and the cup winner will play in the Europa League qualifiers. Now this also happened in 2022 when we made the Conference League quarters, Greece ended up ranked 15th and with 2 teams in Champions League qualifying earlier this season (AEK and PAO) but we obviously slid back down the rankings and that's why next season there is only one team in the Champions League. Thankfully that's us. So hopefully Greek teams (not just us and Olympicos) can go on with this and have runs in Europe and continue to push the nation up the rankings and we can hold onto the 2 UCL spots as well as gain ground in the qualifying rounds and maybe even add an extra European ticket. Because when you look at the country coefficient, on paper there is really no reason we couldn't be ranked around 10th. Currently Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland and the Czech Republic leagues rank ahead of ours. With the big 4 teams in the shape they are currently in, there is no reason we can't push past these countries in the next few years and end up with much better European tickets than we currently have. https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/?year=2024