A' Division: PAOK - Ergotelis

[Ziaka]

On Sunday we play Ergotelis at Toumba. Following the disaster at Karaiskaki only a win is expected by PAOK players against the team that is in the last place of the league table. Unfortunately these days even game like this quite unknown what kind of PAOK team will show up.

In any case PAOK players need to show up and show some pride in the team. It's time to win.

My prediction is 3-1 for PAOK.

[Spears]

The boys have to do it for THE PAOK FANS bring some priode back to the club slowly slowly we will come back to form and up the table,

a solid 2-0 win would be great!!!!

[Batigol]

Yup, hopefully they can come out from under the covers and steal 3 points. I'm not expecting a barrage of goals though...2-0 or 2-1 at best.

[Ziaka]

Vaggelis, Markos, Karadimos (all injured) and Karypidis (red card ban) will miss this game.

Koutsis, Giasemis, Spasic, and Zisopoulos will be available. Let's see if Fringers puts them in.

[drakos13]

goal ogunsoto 0-1 gia thn ergotelh!!!

[drakos13]

final 0-2 Ergotelis wins from 2 ogunsoto goals.......not looking good for paok

[Batigol]

Woooohooooooo!!!!

The good times just keep on rolling for PAOK!!!

....

To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement. I'm just speechless at the knowledge that PAOK, a team that was vying for a CL spot this year has dropped to such a low point. No disrespect meant for Ergotelis...but let's be real here!

Anyway, the comedy of errors continues.

[Original Melbourne 21]

...............................

[Irlandos]

Commiserations, brethren... :(

[Spears]

i just cannot believ wat is going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HOLLYWOOD]

IM SPEECHLESS, I NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!!

U GUYS HAVE NO FIRE LEFT... :(

[Guest Ari]

I think its time Paok realised the serriousness of the situation its in and gives control of the club back to the people. Time and time again private operators promise the world and don't deliver.

It is an absolute disgrace for PAE Paok to be declaring that 'we have no money' when you consider the passion and numbers of support for this club.

Bring back Koudas.

[Nikolaos]

Wow PAOK has reached a new low.... The only silver lining is that there's no way but up....

[Ziaka]

I think very soon we will hit the lowest point of PAOK in its history. I believe the Voulinos era was low, but we are in danger of reaching and surpasing that low. There is only one player on the team that tries (Salpiggidis).

Right now for us to salvage the season, I believe that Anastasiadis needs to come back. He is the only one capable of bring the current players together.

[Batigol]

I'd have to agree with you Ziaka, it does look pretty bleak at the moment and it doesn't seem it's going to change any time soon---which is the real unfortunate part.

Bringing Anastasiadis back isn't going to solve this problem. He's an excellent coach and motivator, no doubt about that. The problem is, he had his chance at the beginning of the season and it didn't work out. If he did come back, the ownership would be admitting that they were faulted for firing him in the first place, something I think we all know these clowns aren't likely to do. Moreover, what would that say of the ownership if they did try and bring him back? "We fired you after 5 games for poor play, we lost the next 5, so now we want to bring you back." I don't think that would give the ownership any type of credibility at all. Mind you, they don't seem to have much at the moment, eh?

I think the players on the team are so bitter right now that any coach PAOK had would be made to look like a goof. The problem, as we are all well aware, is higher up with the ownership. And the bitterness of the players is clearly centred on them for issues like the new contracts, the CL bonuses, etc.. They just don't want to play for anyone. I guess they think that if they suck on the field, that'll hurt the owners in the wallet. And if they hurt the owners in the in wallet, they won't be paid. And if that happens, then they can pull an "Okkas" of some kind and petition FIFA to release them from their contracts with PAOK. Maybe it's a far-fetched idea but it just seems evident to me that this team is capable of competing. Maybe not with the big clubs of Europe, but certainly with the Ergotelis's of this world.

[Ziaka]

The team is going down the tubes, and nobody is doing anything about it. Not the front office. Not the incompetent coach, not the fans, nobody.

I agree with you that the team is capable of competing. We should at the minimum be competing with AEK for the 3rd spot as last year. The same players got 3rd place last season. The problem is motivating the players. How do you do that? Nothing is working. For the front office coming out claiming that there will be new players coming in January does not help the situation. For the front office coming out and presenting plans fro new stadium does not help the situation either. Batatoudis tried that and the players and fans know that this is all hot air, and pointing to the fact that Goumenos does not have the team's best interests on his mind. There is nothing positive on the horizon, and that's why things are going from bad to worse. We have two tough away games coming up (Chalkydona, Xanthi), and if we lose them we might find ourselves in the last place of the table.

The reason I am saying for Aggelos to come back is that he might be the only chance we have to salvage the season, before we find ourselves in the relegation zone.

[GS1905]

It's simply unbelievable... :huh: PAOK are following the footsteps of Celta Vigo... :o Play in the CL and then relegate at the same season... :( 11th place on Week 7 and 3 points away from the relegation spots... :tdown: How such a beloved and supported team could make such a sharp fall is still a question encrazing my mind??? :o In fact, what happened to all Selanik teams is a big big question??? <_< Aris 16th, Iraklis 13th, PAOK 11th... so so so so disappointing... :(

[Batigol]

<_< Pali me auta arxisame;

Asta na pane...

ANYWAY....you nailed it when you said that motivation was the key factor in this whole equation with the players. How the hell do you motivate a bunch of guys who feel they got stiffed out of bonuses? For helping out the club by renegotiating contracts? I'm really not sure. Any financial perks they could offer would be laughed at obviously.

I feel that firing Anastasiadis was a mistake and it wasn't. The club wasn't performing under his tenure. In fact, they were blowing chunks. He certainly wasn't to blame. But he wasn't helping them out of the situation. As a coach/manager, he has to find the ways to motivate the players to perform to their top level. He didn't do that. The club slid, and the admin fired him more or less because they had an agenda (which didn't include Anastasiadis) and they could deflect blame from themselves to the old coach.

These morons still don't understand however, that this Austrian or any other fool that they hire isn't going to change the situation. The players are in revolt. Not against the fans or eachother...but the admin.

Could Aggelos save them from relegation? Maybe...maybe not. I don't think the admin would admit to that error.

But then again, maybe PAOK do deserve to go down to relegation. Let me explain...and please understand, I'm just playing devil's advocate to a certain degree.

Maybe relegation will teach both sides not to f*&^ around anymore.

The admin would take a royal ass kicking in the pocketbook if PAOK were to be relegated. In fact, it could hasten the exit of Goumenos and party from the scene.

As well, the players would hopefully learn that their egos and feelings should not be controlling factors in the grand scheme of a club's stability. As far as I know, they were not swindled or coerced into signing these "new" contracts. It was all on the up and up. The fact that they didn't get their CL bonuses is a fact of the game. Would they have even questioned it if they had played and lost to a recognizable name club from Spain or France or Germany? Probably not. BUT, the fact remains they lost to some wishy-washy club from Israel. THEY LOST. Not the coach, not the fans, and not the owners. THE PLAYERS LOST. If they wanted those CL bonuses so badly, they would have laid down a beating on them. They didn't.

I know the theory that the owners screwed up royally with the "Loukas" affair, but so did the coach, and so did the player himself.

The owners are morons. There is no question of that.

But I really do think that the players have to start getting their heads out of their a@#$% and stop feeling sorry for themselves and personal situations and start playing some football. If not, they could find themselves playing in B' Ethniki. And if that's what they want, well.....what does that say about them.

[Ziaka]

There is no denying that blame for PAOK's woes go all around: front office, players, Anastasiadis, fans ... Some should be blamed more, some less.

The question at hand is how do we get out of this mess. We can't go back. The game against Maccabi can't be re-played. We need to look to the future. I mentioned bringing back Aggelos only because I believe that he is the only one capable of motivating the players at this moment in order not to completely blow the season. Do I think that the front office would even consider bringing him back? No, I don't think that. I think that they were looking for an excuse to fire him for a while, and I think the Louka case was convinient setup to bring him down. I don't even think that Anastasiadis would want to come back to the team at this moment.

The front office made its move and it's not working at all. In the process they allienated tyhe fans as well. What happens next. So they'll bring Shum. They'll sign some Egyptian players. What is that going to accomplish? We are going in circles and in the meantime the team will be dropping point against the likes of Kallithea, Ergotelis, etc.

The team needs to be run like a proffesional football club. With everyone accountable for their actions. Until that is accomplished, we will not go forward.

P.S. Just today it was announced by PAE PAOK that Andralas was fined 1,500 Euro for the red card he received in the game with Ergotelis. TO LITTLE, TOO LATE.