Summer 2009 transfers

[Euro2004]

I'm with Drakos on this one. Yes Katsouranis is a good player and I agree with Cyberfish that DM is a key position but Gilberto, Simao, Mattos, Karagounis and Gabriel all capable of playing in CM, I really don't think it's an essential transfer. This is already being portrayed as a bam transfer which probably means we'll get Katsouranis and another couple of mediocre players. We need the big signing to a centre-forward and a centre-back.

Now if over the summer we end up with Seitaridis, Katsouranis, Cisse, and a good centre-back (why not get players from the relegated Prem teams like Wheater (Boro) or S.Taylor (Newcastle)), then I'd be delighted.

But instead we'll probably end up with Seitaridis, Katsouranis, Puygrenier and some random forward. Katsouranis will be portrayed as the big summer signing, the team will fail in the league again and HTC will be blamed and sacked. Same old story :tdown:

[drakos13]

Why sell Mattos and Simao?

It was like this:

Mattos was bascially our top player last year

Simao was basically our top players this year

Both of them resigned contracts fairly recently

What the hell is the problem?

Theres really absolutley no reason to sell either one. It does look as if this stupid management is going to try and wholesale the teams reconstruction again. And where better off to start (again) than in our strongest position, which is in fact so incredibly strong dare I say the absolute strongest defensive midfield in every single league East of Italy. I cant think of a better setup in those than Simao, Gilberto, Mattos and Tziolis. Thats simply fantastic standard of selection for PAO to have in one position.

And with CB, RB, CF positions in absolute desperation, go risk deconstructing the teams strength and depth in midfield. Smart. Real Smart. Lets see what we scavenge up for CB in late August again - if anything, while were busy wasting time and money resources towards players we have absoltuley no need for.

As for Goalkeeper, if PAE is serious, I am pretty shocked. I thought both our goalkeepers were fantastic this year - they were given the chance to shine with the worst PAO defensive lineup in a decade.

PAO GERA, PLAYOFF KSANA! :tdown:

[Clover22]

I have to agree that signing Katsouranis would be absolutely ridiculous (if they are really looking at him) and it would be just silly to get rid of Mattos. This is when fans take matters into their own hands. We don't need to buy and sell a lot of players; we have a good side that we need to build on; 1 striker (NOT to replace Mantzios) 2-3 defenders and thats IT.

[drakos13]

I also dont understand the "replace Mantzios" idea.

Its quite stupid. Heres an idea:

Replace the players that SUCK, and KEEP THE GOOD ONES.

RUKAVINA SUCKS. Why the heck would a management trade away an important striker to keep a slow, sloppy, unfinishing peice of garabage on the team, when Mantzios has proven he has fantastic games. As for his "inconsistency" myth, when he has service as a lone striker, hes involoved in the game. When PAO sucks, he cant always change things on his own.

Im not talking about "just this year" either. Last season before he left onloan it was the same. Anybody remember those 2 great goals vs AEK? or this year how he was easily the top striker for us in the Champions League???? Aerial talent that can control, pass and finish and distribute you dont rubbish. Especially for absolute washup trash like Ante Rukavina.

Wow Rukavina had 7 tap in goals for us. Please, tell us more. Dont forget Petropoulos also had 7, and his actually required skill to finish. And even Clayton had 6 goals. So maybe its time to "up the Ante" and replace this loser instead of our top striker.

[NYPAO13]

i cant understand all this goalie tranfser talk its making me nuts.

Can we get a striker that is a proven goal scorer & a defender who can defend please

[cyberfish]

I think the goalkeeper talk is all trash from managers. I can see us letting Karnezis go somewhere else, as is customary for 3d goalkeepers, but I don't see a pressing need to buy a goalkeeper. Galinovic-Tzorvas are the best tandem in Greece right now.

BTW, we have several loaned players that are up in the air.

Tziolis will stay abroad with reports sending him to Italy or staying at Bremen for less than the 1.9 in the contract.

Morris is up in the air but reports indicate he will get some interest from Spain where he had a good year.

Darlas is returning since PAOK doesn't want him any more, but there is no place for him with PAO either.

Dimoutsos is already back practicing with the team from what I read earlier, but he will be loaned/sold soon.

Does anyone know anything about Puygrenier? Apparently his agent was in Athens earlier, and now a Zenit representative is visiting with the club to work out a sale or loaning.

I've never seen him play and the little I read on the web indicates he is good in the air, albeit a tad slow on the ground. Apparently he had two good years with Nancy but didn't make a dent at Zenit or Bolton.

[Clover22]

Drakos I was thinking about your comments on Ruka; I have to say that at the beginning of the season and for a while he looked very promising, but as of late he has not looked very good at all. Don't quite know what to make of this but I normally don't give up on a player that quickly. Regarding Dimoutsos, if he's back with us it would be nice to keep him but that would give us a lot of midfield guys; however would you want him or Gabriel if you had to choose? And isn't he good on the left anyway? Not to knock off Ivan who should be starting every game (instead of Spyro's horrible crosses). I really hope Dimoutsos doesn't turn into one of those talented "lost" players like Theodoridis, guys who should be playing for the NT.

[GreenTitus]

Puygrenier was a super hot name last year as he was sensational with Nancy. He's very good in the air and quite good with the ball - I remember he took a very important penalty for Nancy. It's true that he's a bit slow and not the most exciting player in the world. I saw him with Zenit in the Super Cup final and I thought he was solid. I had my eyes fixed on him as I wanted to see what we lost in the summer - remember how Antoniou was very keen on signing the guy? But Zenit paid a ridiculous 6 mil for him. Of course, I 've also seen Lugano and I think he's amazing. Also, my friends from Latin Marica say that Andujar is a formidable keeper.

[cyberfish]

Thanks Titus. I've seen a lot of reports of meetings between Antoniou and Puygrenier so it looks like it might happen.

Clover22, Dimoutsos plays almost exclusively as a RM. I don't remember him ever playing on the left. He does have some talent, and I think he'll be better off loaned so he can see extensive playing time.

[drakos13]

Drakos I was thinking about your comments on Ruka; I have to say that at the  beginning of the season and for a while he looked very promising, but as of late he has not looked very good at all. Don't quite know what to make of this but I normally don't give up on a player that quickly. Regarding Dimoutsos, if he's back with us it would be nice to keep him but that would give us a lot of midfield guys; however would you want him or Gabriel if you had to choose? And isn't he good on the left anyway? Not to knock off Ivan who should be starting every game (instead of Spyro's horrible crosses). I really hope Dimoutsos doesn't turn into one of those talented "lost" players like Theodoridis, guys who should be playing for the NT.

i wouldnt say very promising. He never looked like an impact player, he did in his first 2-3 games look like he had some dribbles and speed bursts in him, but not much more. After that we saw nothing, some scrap goals that could have been any player. Needless to say I like Petropoulos a lot more, he works harder and is the better finisher, and has actual presence in the area and the air- generally I prefer that type of "hard" striker than the "soft" strikers like Rukavina too, theyre more productive.

I just see us keeping him and keeping him and taking us years to realize we need to have a much stronger player in his spot. And it does not make sense to replace our important performing players and keep our losers.

As for Dimoutsos, I like the idea of having him back on the bench. Hes quite agressive and quick, could be useful.

Morris, Tziolis should come back to PAO. Familiarity with PAO and in Greece should be considered as a bonus for creating a team.

[cyberfish]

Well, I get the feeling the sportdog.com reporters are 13 year-old.

Here is the article today about a goalkeeper called Fulop: http://www.sportdog.gr/new/article.aspx?id=97908 Someone sat down and wrote two pages on this journeyman goalkeeper and even posted two videos with what they call "highlights". So, being curious, I watched the video to see who this "monstrous" goalkeeper is.

The videos contain footage of a couple of games with several shots sailing wide of his goal while he watches, a soft penalty shot by Robinhio that fell on his lap, and one horrid play by Fulop who spilled the ball and allowed Liverpool to score :LOL:

What's the point of all this. I am all for improving every position on the field, but I don't care for signing mediocre players in positions we don't need them.

[cyberfish]

http://www.gazzetta.gr/content/view/35710/2/

Jose Sand reportedly will come to Panathinaikos! I've never seen him play but judging from his scoring rate and onine reports he is a solid CF. Playing in Argentina where defending is much toucher than Brazil tells me that he knows how to find the net.

Does anyone know anything about Sand?

[GreenTitus]

I really don't know much myself but I must say that only his scoring record with Lanus is impressive - for the rest of his career was not exactly a prolific striker. Also, I must say I 'm not a huge fan of 28 year olds who have never played in Europe. Also, I found this online. It's just a couple of fans' opinions and I 'm not implying that they 're right but that's all I could find. On the bright side, he has been linked with Arsenal, Liverpool and several other big clubs. But, let's face it, he did fail at River.

[cyberfish]

Thanks for the link Titus. The discussion seems to be from a couple of years ago. I read in Wikipedia that he was called to the Argentinian NT last October and he was called again for the upcoming friendly against Panama May 20th.

[XXX-18T]

http://www.kickoff.com/static/news/article.php?id=8763

[drakos13]

interesting.

Morris was another stupid mistake

Ill remind you that I wanted him gone last summer too. But, theres a difference. That goes with the assumption you at least REPLACE the player you sent away with another one. Instead the team had just one less CB.

No, Melissis never counted.

I think the best thing now is to bring him back. Hes probably got better, he could be playing with Bryce Moon in the back line which is good for him, and hes much better than Sareigui.

Toss Sariegui out - he worked very hard after the few months and he did give good service, but hes just not skilled enough or consistent enough to last. I cant beleive he's not being put up for replacement yet, as the standard in the backline clearly has to be higher than him if we want a trophy next season. Morris would be better.

I like the idea of bringing back all the european moves back to PAO to be reunited. i think thier experinece and succeses with PAO, and their new talent in Europe and ability to settle in Greece would make a "super-team" for Greek standards.

Seitaridis, Morris, Kyrgiakos (could have been), Gkekas, Tziolis...we already got Karagkounis back, and hes the teams leader and best player. Mantzios came back stornger.......

Of course, the obvious exceptions of our players gone abroad would be Theodoridis, Xaralambidis, and Torghelle :LOL: ......

[NYPAO13]

i have no problem with a Roukavina, I would have a problem if we didnt sign anyone better than him who is a proven goal scorer. Where has Mantzios been the past month?

[Euro2004]

Seitaridis, Morris, Kyrgiakos (could have been), Gkekas, Tziolis...we already got Karagkounis back, and hes the teams leader and best player. Mantzios came back stornger.......

Of course, the obvious exceptions of our players gone abroad would be Theodoridis, Xaralambidis, and Torghelle :LOL: ......

I think Seitaridis and Gekas would be excellent moves but I'm not keen on Morris and throwing Sarriegui out would be silly. Yes I agree he needs replacing but he shouldn't be shipped out, we need depth.

Personally I'd love us to sign Seitaridis and Kyrgiakos (if in anyway possible). They would be no-brainers. After that I'd like to see Gekas sign, as long as we also get a big target-man type centre-forward to have some variation there, i.e. Pavlyuchenko or Pogrebnyak style forward. Also now Betis are down I want to see us revive our bid to sign Oliveira.

Those signings would mean we'd sign 2 strikers, a CB, a RB and a left-sided forward. That's all we need. No need to get carried away.

If we signed these guys I'd also place Melissis, Ivanschitz, and Cleyton on the transfer list.

[adonis]

does anyone know anything about this cedric kante.....hes a 29 yo left footed defender from nice, he's from mali with french passport and has been a regular for last three seasons at nice

we were interested in him in jan before we signed the polack vavziniak (or wateva it is)

but now kante is free.....

http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/179314

[cyberfish]

Kante sees to be invisible on the web, unless he goes by another name. With full seasons in France I would expect a few web pages and youtube videos at least. He looks like a Morris clone http://www.lfp.fr/joueur/index.asp?no_joueur=11485 here :LOL:

If he comes, welcome and we 'll judge after we see him, but so far I am looking at another puzzling transfer picture. We seem to be looking at Kante and Puygrenier for our CB solution. Both players seem to be the opposite of each other in terms of physical characteristics. Either we don't know what kind of CB we want or we'll buy two.

[drakos13]

Jose Sand is bound for PAO, according to "Ole"

Basically says PAO offered 4mil dollars for Jose Sand, and Lanus did not refuse it.

Claims that Jose Sand next week will be coming to Greece to work out details and sign.

article in spanish;

http://www.ole.clarin.com/notas/2009/06/02...l/01931074.html

[cyberfish]

Thanks for the link Drako.

Sand looks like a prolific goalscorer and all reports indicate he is a good player. We need someone with a killer instinct up front, more than we need a fancy dribbler.

If we pay 4 million for Sand, 2m for Katsourani, 7k for Puygrenier, nothing for Kante, and nothing for Seitaridis, we reach about 6.7 m Euro for all the positions of need. That's far shy from the 20 m they budgeted. Maybe they'll spend some good money to bring in a left winger too.

I hope the scouting team has done their homework and that all the players become contributors, because so far these names amount to one bench player (for the last 2 years), one undersized CB that has been awfully quiet, and one prolific CF who has never played in Europe.

I am always optimistic of course, and whoever wears the trifilli will have my support, but I am trying to look at the bigger picture.

[drakos13]

Suggestion: Pay ZERO for Katsouranis.

[cyberfish]

You can rest assured that I won't pay a penny.

One of the things I've been thinking after these names floated is, what's the point of establishing a "20 million minimum" budget when you don't plan to use it?

[drakos13]

Its part of the usual publicity lie that everybody falls for.

Boast high transfer ambitions, set high sales for season tickets, then dont follow up on the signings.

I cant imagine how angry season ticket holders must have been this season.

The protathlima was basically over in November.

I think the only way I'd buy into the season tickets thing, is to get priority on big European matches (which, I'm skeptical as to PAO's European prospects in the new system that is designed to destroy competition, eliminate superior teams early , and screw over the teams of the middle leagues) also the whole not having to waste time buying the ticket would be nice. But those are not good reasons.