Sotiris Ninis

[loup]

bad news for PAO though - except for the $ he will fetch -- bad news for PAO fans I'd say

[athinaios]

Do I hear this correctly????!!!! That a player that develops quickly to become great is not good?!!! :o

I do hope that Ninis become the greatest ever. We'll have him for a while, and if he brings in the big $$$ he should go to a big euro team. I'd like to see a young talent flourish. And, the Greek national team will benefit too!

Geesh guys, relax. Ninis will stay with PAO for a while. This team has good prospects. He'll only leave if he's ready to be a starter in a big club.

I don't want mediocre players that stay for far too long! Want me to name names who stayed with PAO for 3-5 years and did nothing?....

[Kojak]

Ninis is going to explode this season thats the good news

Bad news he will be in Spain or Italy a year from now

being in spain or italy is great news.

realistically speaking, if we want our national development program to go forward, our players need to go play in the best leagues possible.

best player in hte bast 20 years, zidane, played most of his career in italy and spain.

how about our domestic teams get a bit of glory in europe first...then we build on the national teams progression....

if we do start to unload our talent early...then yes our national team may or may not go well...but 1 thing is for sure PAO, AEK and oly fans will forever be whinging about how pathetic we are going in european cups.

Lets sort out our own house first before we help the italian/spanish/english clubs....

[thrylos]

Hey guys,

Now I think Ninis talent is undenaible and I think that almost everyone will agree that he has a nice future ahead of him.

My concern is he lack of playing time. Rumour has it the coach isn't really concidering him this year. If that is true, what are his best options.

Does he practice to gain experience?

Does he get loaned out?

Does PAO sell his rights?

Will OTO keep on calling him up if he's not playing?

[drakos13]

ok I think this a topic with a lot of confusion, and everybody here seems divided between 2 extremes.

(this is not directed to you Thrylos specifically, youre one of many fans bringing up the topic)

For one, people are panicking about the player because he has missed 2 games.....Its 2 games. He HAS played, he HAS gotten starts this season, and hes practicing with the team. The season just begun didnt it?

Clayton was left out of a few games so far, now look at him made the 11 last 2 matches......Ninis is NOT off the team.

Ninis is a great talent and a great player, but the PAO team has got a lot of depth. There have also been games where Karagkounis, Ivanschitz, and Clayton have not stepped on the field remember.

People seem to think here that he belongs guaranteed 11, or the others who disagree say hes not worth 11, and too young etc......

I cant agree with either of them. We know hes perfectly capable of starting and playing - suggesting otherwise is ridiculous, I apologize. He will play and not play, he is a great player but the set up on PAO is quite competitive, and hes not the only one to be left out of a lineup. From PAO fan perspective, its not hard to see why Bryce Moon replaced him the other day.....Moon is in hot form. Ninis got 2 sits, but Clayton got some and when he stepped up his game there he is on the starting 11...

And yes, he is practicing in the first team he has played in games this year, and he is not going on loan nor needs to, simply because he didnt play last 2 matches....

As for Otto: If he doesnt play will that reflect Otto's deceisions??????? Of course not! Angelos Basinas didnt even have a football team for half a year and was still in the 11 in 2006!

[cyberfish]

Drakos has it spot on.

Ninis is a great talent. He is quite capable starting for Pao, but Panathinaikos has a lot of depth and for the next few years we'll see the pattern where he starts when he is in form, and he sits when others are in better form

This is the best way for Ninis to learn. Everytime he sits, he needs to find ways to make himself better so he can start again.

I don't think loaning out Ninis would be constructive. The level of competition, practice, and ambition is simply much higher at PAO. You loan out players who won't be helping in the season, but Ninis will see many appearances this year.

Personally, I go crazy every time people throw fits if the kid does not play. I saw him play this season and I did not think he looked ready for prime time. He is good, but from what I saw he has a few years ahead before he becomes an undisputed starter. Karagounis and Cleyton are ahead in the depth chart as of now, but this is a long season. There will be many starts for Ninis.

BTW, this year he has played as an AM, where he admittedly likes to play and where he can flourish some day. But this is a much more difficult position to play when you tend to hold the ball a little longer. At times he looked overwhelmed seeing how opponents came one after the other with no end in sight. I thought he was much more effective as a right winger where he has the moves to exploit two defenders to reach open space. His marking is his weak spot at RW though.

Panathinaikos and Ninis are close to agreeing on a restructured contract to expire in 1012 with higher pay for Ninis and a much higher release fee than he had (which was a reported 15 million).

[cyberfish]

Well, now we have two Ninis threads. I'll post this on the long one so we can have a complete record of our thoughts in a few years when he plays for Real :P

Mod note: thanks for the work guys, I merged the topics again <_<

23-09-2008

[Steve07]

Yup they also wanted to put a 40mill buy-out on his contract and his agents said "with that money he will never be bought by a big club" so they settled on 10mill buyout lol Hmmm lets see which team steps up and grabs him next year.

[adonis]

great move by the pae to sign him

10 mill - should of put more - btw its 15 mill for a greek club and 10 mill for any other european club

anyways

i predict this will be his last contract he signs for pao - at least in this part of his career - he may be back at the end of his career aka karagounis

[NYPAO13]

Is there any reason he cant start before Gabriel, who im just tired of?

You have Inter & AC milan looking at him, yet we barely use the kid.

When will it be time for this kid to get a realistic shot here?

[cyberfish]

I think I wrote about it here before, but maybe not. It seems to me so evident that the club is nursing Ninis to be Karagounis' replacement.

If its the case, it's a good plan. Karagounis is 32 now and given the amount of running he does with the ball every game he will need to be spelled more and more this and the next year. Ninis is perfect now to share time with Karagounis. I also see that Ten Cate plays Ninis every chance he gets. He started at Madrid and he started yesterday. He looks like he is in good shape too. In the last couple of games he looked fresh and had some good speed.

I think he is used correctly to get him the experience he needs without putting too much weight on his shoulders.

He is a very talented player and every game he has at least a couple brilliant moves. But he is only 19 and his game is still improving. In a couple of years when Karagounis retires, Ninis will be the leader of Panathinaikos.