Olympiakos - A club at the crossroads
Lets start from the beginning, but before that. Congratulations to AEK Athens on winning the League. They have been the feel good story of the season and with a new stadium on the horizon, things are looking good for the club.
Managers.
The appointment of Besnik Hasi. Hasi was an odd choice but was brought in for his ability to navigate through the UCL qualification stages. A job he succeeded in but from the beginning of the season we never really looked like a comfortable team and our UCL performances where absolutely shocking albeit in a tough group but when our first opponent was Sporting Lisbon a team we should of fancied ourselves over at home and still went down 3-2 it was curtains and essentially we were out after our second game (a loss to Juventus) With one point gained in a 0-0 draw against Barcelona it was the worst performance a Greek team has shown in the UCL.
Our GSL campaign started off with 2 wins but as a team we never looked comfortable and Hasi did not figure out how to fix these problems. Poor draws against Xanthi and Asteras followed by a loss to rivals AEK meant Hasi time was up before October.
The go to man, Takis Lemonis was brought in and given an 18 month contract. When he came in the reality was we had stuffed up our UCL campaign and even qualification into the UEL was too far a bridge to climb, but never the less he steadied the ship and by the Christmas break, we were sitting top of the table. This is where the club made a big mistake and decided that Lemonis' time was up and brought in Oscar Garcia. Under Garcia we went back being a nervous team similar to how Hasi's had us playing and like Hasi, his tenure did not last long and was sacked within 3 months. Christos Kontis was brought in to see out the season and whilst there was a slim chance of Olympiakos winning the league, ultimately 4 managers in one season was never gonna work and as I write this we are sitting third with no chance of even obtaining UCL qualification.
Playing squad.
This was also a massive balls up.
Olympiakos went out and in my opinion paid overs for a bunch of average players that simply did not live up to the hype that surrounded them. Durdevic, Emineke, Engles, Ben, Milic, Gillet, Tachtsidis, Mirallas could all be described as failures this season with only veteran GK Proto getting a pass mark. As Olympiakos is accustomed to, it also went through the GSL and purchased the best players from lower clubs without any intention of playing them and ended up with a huge unsustainable squad.
Selling Panagiotis Retsos was always going to happen, but the fact the club did not adequately replace him showed to be a huge mistake.
Lastly I am sick of seeing players carry on like primadonnas. We do not need these types at the club as their actions only bring embarrassment to us.
Owner Evangelios Marinakis.
He needs to put his hand up and accept blame for this season too. I can never deny that he loves the club and he has backed the club financially with his own money but there comes a time when replacing manager after manager and player after player needs to stop.
Why on earth did he see the need to move Lemonis on after he had steadied the ship? I know the club craves European success but that could have been a goal after this season ended as by the time Garcia had come in we were shot in Europe.
Why does he always want foreign managers (who have generally been a failure at a higher level) to coach us without the club putting in a remit that they must look at the young Greek players in the squad over the over hyped and garbage foreigner that steal a wage?
If he doesn't learn from these mistakes, or surround himself with stronger people that are not yes men then this will not get better, and as we have seen with PAO, fans can quickly turn on owners.
On field / Off field garbage.
It does not interest me in pointing the finger or laying blame on individuals. Year after year I hear the same garbage that Marinakis did this, or Marinakis did that and whilst he is a divisive figure with a host of court cases against him, the league itself is full of these figures with him (and Savvidis) being the loudest.
Greek football has had questionable owners for as long as I can remember but right now it is at the cross roads of either standing up and showing the world that we can have a successful league or continue as we are and fade into the oblivion becoming a third rate European league. All owners, including Marinakis need to put their ego and hatred for one another aside to ensure the game succeeds. They don't need to be friends, but they need to respect each other.
We also need to stop playing the victim especially when things do not go our way and whilst this might be a wider issue in Greek football with most clubs doing it, a line in the sand must be drawn and we need to be bigger and better than the status quo.
The future.
47 year old Pedro Martins, a Portuguese manager who has managed mid table Portuguese clubs has been given the job. Whether this is a smart decision or not time will tell. I just hope that the club has made a point to him that he must use the talented Greek players first and foremost and only delve into the market for new players IF they can show that they will bring in something different that we do not have.
Also our squad need to be trimmed as I cannot see a positive training environment at the club where there is a good dozen plus players coming in to training on a daily basis knowing they will never get a run.
AEK have shown the blueprint for success, and with a club like Olympiakos, failure two years in a row is not an option but if we continue in doing the same and with AEK and PAOK (and a soon to be PAO) looking stronger year by year we could potentially be heading into some lean years ahead.
By George for Hellas Football.
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