Olympiacos Piraeus

[Faliro]

Apparently Olympiakos asking for €5 million which is nothing.

How is he? It's worth the money?
Afellay can be a king in Greece, let's wait to see. Such a great player but those knees..

Samaris discussed here:

http://serbenfiquista.com/forum/english-board/topic-of-sport-lisboa-e-benfica/90/

As for Afellay, not impressed yet.

[Faliro]

Finally got a decent striker.. Jorge Benitez

[PsychoFan]

It's not premature to say that, Faliro?

[Faliro]

We have a 21 year old Greek called Diamantakos who has scored 9 league goals in his career and a 21 year old Nigerian called Olaitan who was on fire until he suffered a heart attack..

As far as I am concerned, Benitez can't be worse...... right? 

[KBMASTER]

Faliro, maybe Diamantakos will be a good surprise for you. You should wait and see  From what i've read and seen of Diamantakos, he is not such a bad player. He lacks experience, but he can only achieve his potencial, if he plays.

[Faliro]

Faliro, maybe Diamantakos will be a good surprise for you. You should wait and see  From what i've read and seen of Diamantakos, he is not such a bad player. He lacks experience, but he can only achieve his potencial, if he plays.

Excellent post and I can't add anything. I think Diamantakos can do well with minutes. He has shown he knows how to score. Vergos looks even better, but he is very young.  I am happy about Benitez because he is also young. The culture is changing in Greece which is nice to see. Usually we get 35 year old veterans to fill in the gaps up top. 

[KBMASTER]

Faliro, maybe Diamantakos will be a good surprise for you. You should wait and see  From what i've read and seen of Diamantakos, he is not such a bad player. He lacks experience, but he can only achieve his potencial, if he plays.

Excellent post and I can't add anything. I think Diamantakos can do well with minutes. He has shown he knows how to score. Vergos looks even better, but he is very young.  I am happy about Benitez because he is also young. The culture is changing in Greece which is nice to see. Usually we get 35 year old veterans to fill in the gaps up top.

I know what you mean, but don't you like Saviola? He is in the 30's, but he has that kind of flair, that class, that you don't see very often. The problem is that, there's always someone that may come in, who lacks that class.
But that's good, for Olympiacos and for Greek Football, that younger players are getting chances, only then, national squads may improve. And with that, you're going to be better in terms of sales, because of the price tag Hellas, will have higher level, and in terms of sports perfomance, you may even reach high results on short notice.

[Faliro]

Faliro, maybe Diamantakos will be a good surprise for you. You should wait and see  From what i've read and seen of Diamantakos, he is not such a bad player. He lacks experience, but he can only achieve his potencial, if he plays.

Excellent post and I can't add anything. I think Diamantakos can do well with minutes. He has shown he knows how to score. Vergos looks even better, but he is very young.  I am happy about Benitez because he is also young. The culture is changing in Greece which is nice to see. Usually we get 35 year old veterans to fill in the gaps up top.

I know what you mean, but don't you like Saviola? He is in the 30's, but he has that kind of flair, that class, that you don't see very often. The problem is that, there's always someone that may come in, who lacks that class.
But that's good, for Olympiacos and for Greek Football, that younger players are getting chances, only then, national squads may improve. And with that, you're going to be better in terms of sales, because of the price tag Hellas, will have higher level, and in terms of sports perfomance, you may even reach high results on short notice.

I agree with everything. I was very envious of how Portugal developed its football from Euro 2004. If Greece can learn anything - it should look towards Iberia. Olympiakos leads the charge in youth, improving sales, building relationships with other big clubs. The ability is here in Greece, but the mentality outside of Olympiakos is a little archaic/

Concerning Saviola, I never really saw him as a striker, more of a hybrid who is perhaps better just behind the front line. He has had a quiet pre-season. We have quite a few players, but if we lose Manolas, we will be extremely beatable. The league has still not allowed B teams, so our squad is boated. Lots of good players, but not many world beaters, however, the fans can sometimes elevate a player. I feel someone like Mathieu Dossevi could be a fan favorite and could be quite special. He certainly picked a good number for his back..77... The fans did this with Galletti, Castillo, Mirallas, etc.. they made the player even better with encouragement.

[KBMASTER]

Faliro, maybe Diamantakos will be a good surprise for you. You should wait and see  From what i've read and seen of Diamantakos, he is not such a bad player. He lacks experience, but he can only achieve his potencial, if he plays.

Excellent post and I can't add anything. I think Diamantakos can do well with minutes. He has shown he knows how to score. Vergos looks even better, but he is very young.  I am happy about Benitez because he is also young. The culture is changing in Greece which is nice to see. Usually we get 35 year old veterans to fill in the gaps up top.

I know what you mean, but don't you like Saviola? He is in the 30's, but he has that kind of flair, that class, that you don't see very often. The problem is that, there's always someone that may come in, who lacks that class.
But that's good, for Olympiacos and for Greek Football, that younger players are getting chances, only then, national squads may improve. And with that, you're going to be better in terms of sales, because of the price tag Hellas, will have higher level, and in terms of sports perfomance, you may even reach high results on short notice.

I agree with everything. I was very envious of how Portugal developed its football from Euro 2004. If Greece can learn anything - it should look towards Iberia. Olympiakos leads the charge in youth, improving sales, building relationships with other big clubs. The ability is here in Greece, but the mentality outside of Olympiakos is a little archaic/

Concerning Saviola, I never really saw him as a striker, more of a hybrid who is perhaps better just behind the front line. He has had a quiet pre-season. We have quite a few players, but if we lose Manolas, we will be extremely beatable. The league has still not allowed B teams, so our squad is boated. Lots of good players, but not many world beaters, however, the fans can sometimes elevate a player. I feel someone like Mathieu Dossevi could be a fan favorite and could be quite special. He certainly picked a good number for his back..77... The fans did this with Galletti, Castillo, Mirallas, etc.. they made the player even better with encouragement.

You can learn more fore our fellow neighbours, Spain than from us. Here, we discuss a lot the best way to improve our youngsters, because, we see loads of potential, but the club is almost ignoring our best youngsters and they remain on the junior squad or b squad, while others are going on loans to Monaco and Valencia. In Spain, they are not afraid of putting on the field, a player with 17 years old and that's why they develop better and further than the majority of the other players. Then, Spanish Federation is more organized and their methods help the development of the players in a way that, here in Portugal, it is impossible, because the federation coaches lack knowledge and are not able to develop their abilities, meaning that the young squads play only to win and not with the purpose of giving show to the viewers, which is a philosophy that many of us, do not understand, because, they need to make mistakes in order to evolve and here, they are tactically very aware because since youngsters, they are shaped into a rigid system, but the players are becoming more and more like robots, there no space for improvisation, for making mistakes and growing up consequently... That's concerning for us, portuguese fans.

Regarding Olympiacos squad, I was watching the roster a few moments ago, and you have a promissing young gun, that I believe, will be soon, a reference on the Swiss squad, Kasami, a world beater, as you have said. I think highly of him and with the passion of supporters, he may become the new star of the team. Regarding Manolas, it is indeed, a big loss. Any subs on agenda? Or Botia is playing on his spot?

[Faliro]

Seems you have the same problems with youth as we do in Greece. I dislike this culture immensely.

Botia seems shit and slow so far. Siovas is not bad, but always injured. Avraam just can't run since the injury. He was told to retire but he fought and came back but just has no speed now. The youngster Avlonitis doesn't know what planet he is on for some reason.  Manolas is our get out of jail free card. Superior player.

Kasami is an interesting one, he had quite a following at Fulham. One thing I hope he becomes is more of a team player. Seems he is very shot happy and I don't mind that, as long as the player can hit the target.

As for our two biggest attack talents (Fetfa and Ninis), both were given runs at young ages by Zico and Munoz respectively. No Greek coach would have given them minutes.

I spent a big chunk of my life trying to explain to many Greeks why playing a young star who is scoring every time he gets a chance is more important than starting a 32 year old player who is leaving at the end of the season. 

Even more shocking is the kind of crap players the Greek media actually respect.. Fortunis, Kone, Lazaros, etc.. Such average talents..

[KBMASTER]

Seems you have the same problems with youth as we do in Greece. I dislike this culture immensely.

Botia seems shit and slow so far. Siovas is not bad, but always injured. Avraam just can't run since the injury. He was told to retire but he fought and came back but just has no speed now. The youngster Avlonitis doesn't know what planet he is on for some reason.  Manolas is our get out of jail free card. Superior player.

Kasami is an interesting one, he had quite a following at Fulham. One thing I hope he becomes is more of a team player. Seems he is very shot happy and I don't mind that, as long as the player can hit the target.

As for our two biggest attack talents (Fetfa and Ninis), both were given runs at young ages by Zico and Munoz respectively. No Greek coach would have given them minutes.

I spent a big chunk of my life trying to explain to many Greeks why playing a young star who is scoring every time he gets a chance is more important than starting a 32 year old player who is leaving at the end of the season. 

Even more shocking is the kind of crap players the Greek media actually respect.. Fortunis, Kone, Lazaros, etc.. Such average talents..

I see your point. Manolas is an high profile player and it is going to be hard to find replacement for him.
Fortunis got back to Greece now, didn't he? He has some skills, but he is not a superstar, not by a long shot.
Here, in Portugal, we have an image that Hellas squad is a defensive squad, but is very effective on that process. It is a team that lacks talent and has a lot of hard working players. If that wasn't the case, Karagounis, Katsouranis, Gekas, and another bold player that i can't remember the name right now, but he plays on PAOK, and his name finishes with -poulos termination, had already left, for other players, younger. I like what I've seen from Lazaros and Kone, but they are more a kind of team players, and not deciders, if you know what I mean.
On the defense, I think Holebas, Kyriakos (if the injuries leave him), Manolas and Torosidis, are a strong back and Kapino, sooner or later, will overcome the competition and become the goalkeeper. On the midfield and offensive position, i don't see players that can take the places of the ones mentioned above.
Regarding Kasami, believe me, he is going to be a breakthrough
Regarding youth, we have a recent example. Ruben Neves, which is a player from Porto, captain of the under 17 squad of Portugal, starred and scored a goal on the first team. On that team of the under 17, Benfica had 9 players on the starting 11, very talented, and they are on the same place, winning games easily, not evolving, whereas, that kid of Porto, may play against Lille, Wednesnay, on the Champions Play-off. We prefer to spend loads of money on unknown brasilian players, that are playing on lower divisions and they arrive here, and his mindblowing their lack of complete skills for playing these sport. As you can see, our Scouting doesn't function very well and our development academy either, which is a shame, for a big club, like us.

[Faliro]

Don't want to lose manolas really. He is massively underrated. If you watch games week in, week out, his speed is truely mind blowing. He is just one of these gifted athletes that no one can touch for speed and he is a good defender also. Amazed Barcelona overlooked him, but mind you, he is greek and we still carry a bad name.

Kyriakos paps injuries are never ending it seems. He left schalke but I am not certain we will ever see that same player again. Personally i think he was wasted at CB. Schalke played him a few times at CM as he was exceptionally good there, his range of passing - with both feet, was very impressive.

As for these young players. Here is my story. Fetfatzidis is playing amazing in the league and champions league, scoring, creating... and only through sub appearences because he is too young... finally gets minutes from Santos - something many greeks said he was not experienced enough to deserve.. Of course, he scores, wins the game and is the best player on the pitch. Santos' comments after the game? ''He needs to improve and still has much to learn - I would rather you don't discuss this player'' - Needless to say, fetfatzidis was dropped altogether for the next 3 games.. at one point he had 3 goals in 3 appearences, but was then dropped for a year to cool off... Ninis constantly experienced the same.

Fortunis is at Olympiakos and he looks rubbish. I never really rated him, it seems his wonder goal against olympiakos was enough for everyone to rate him.. However, Bouxalakis - youth player, scored an even better goal last month against Milan, where is his parade? Watch the the slow-mo replay..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuvwU3XdnzE This player I think would thrive with minutes. But who is going to give them to him? Only Ergotelis last season did..

Defensive wise Greece has many good players, better than most teams actually, Torosidis, Xolebas, Karabellas, Manolas, K. Paps, Siovas, etc Keepers are average... I think kapino is far from being a 'safe' keeper, he likes to go on walks too much outside his box..he could get away with it at under 21 level, not the normal league.

Kone and Lazaros are utility players, not great, not bad. I dislike them. Katsouranis and Karagounis were always on the phone to their agents making sure the EPO selected them, Fyssas (you may remember him) would make sure they were always selected. Many Greeks left the national team because of this culture - Amanatidis of Eintracht being the most famous.

I think Samaris offers 20 times what Katsouranis does, but it is a mafia.. In the world cup, someone started a page on facebook for Katsouranis not to play in our final group game and got over 100,000 likes. The media went berserk saying that Greeks don't know how good he is and are disrespectful.. you see much of the media is paid off by players and agents for extra  pocket money... I think Ninis and Fetfa are 20 times better than Salpi, lazaros, Fortunis, kone etc. Maniatis is just a rubbish footballer, however Tziolis is truely awful. All these players form a Clicka together and bully other players. karagounis at least quit after the world cup..

I rememebr a very good Greek coach called Tsiolis (perhaps the only Greek coach who has the brains to coach outside Greece, but not the ambition) said he didn't understand why Valverde didn't play fetfatzidis more often. The media turned on him instantly.

Your story about the Benfica youth players mirrors Greece and it is very very sad. The funniest thing is, the people who defend this culture always run out of excuses when a young player debuts and is better than the older veteran he replaced. Luckily 99% of the time the younger player is benched for the next 5 games ending the experiment, but the idiots usually make up lies that the young players dont do enough in training to earn minutes, go out clubbing and the classic...playing well in actual games is not as important as being a team player and experienced and training hard etc etc... I mean really low IQ stuff...

The saddest thing I saw were players like Ninis and Fetfatzidis punished for outshining the veterans. You could not invent such a bizarre thing...As they say... ''Greeks always eat their own children..'' Seems you Portuguese also do the same..

[KBMASTER]

Faliro, a newspaper here in Portugal is stating that Samaris could leave for about 4M and that both Olympiacos and Benfica are closing on a deal. What are the news around there, about this subject?

[Faliro]

The news coming from Greece has fluctuated. First I was reading €5 million for him.

Today, Greek sites are quoting Portuguese sources saying Olympiakos want €8 million.

http://www.redplanet.gr/podosfairo/metagrafes-podosfairo/prepei-na-plhrwsoyn.2980785.html

I think Olympiakos are playing hard with him because firstly he is a quality player and secondly, Michel likes to play him. Personally I think he is the best cm Greece has atm. He has some flaws to his game to do with concentration, but he is the closest player we have to a Busquets.

[KBMASTER]

The news coming from Greece has fluctuated. First I was reading €5 million for him.

Today, Greek sites are quoting Portuguese sources saying Olympiakos want €8 million.

http://www.redplanet.gr/podosfairo/metagrafes-podosfairo/prepei-na-plhrwsoyn.2980785.html

I think Olympiakos are playing hard with him because firstly he is a quality player and secondly, Michel likes to play him. Personally I think he is the best cm Greece has atm. He has some flaws to his game to do with concentration, but he is the closest player we have to a Busquets.

There's one newspaper which is a little flaw, to say the least, that refers those 8M. Another says the offer is 4M and 15% of a future sale. And this newspaper has been more accurate on Benfica signings.
I like that comparison, Busquets, hum? I like it very much.