Olympiakos, 2017/18 The Season to Forget

Olympiakos, 2017/18 The Season to Forget

By Steve Kountourou

Last week, I wrote and reflected on what is my favourite season supporting my club Olympiakos, the 2015/16 campaign. On the highs of the league title victory, what could have been in Europe and the squad, while not a vintage one, played an exciting brand of football under then manager Marco Silva. So I thought it would be fitting for this week, to look at my least favourite season supporting Thrylos. I am sure many fellow supporters of the Piraeus side, as well as other fans of different clubs, also have a particular campaign that is etched into their memory as truly woeful. We as fans of Olympiakos have been very privileged to not have too many eras of mediocrity but if you look hard enough there are certainly some. 

 

While the baron years between 1985 to 1995, in which Thrylos failed to win a league title were bad for those who remember that period, this was thankfully before my time. The both the 2003/04 and 2009/10 season in which the side missed to their eternal rivals Panathinaikos to the title on both occasions, for which I was not a follower of football during this period. 

In my experience of supporting Olympiakos, by far and away the worst season I have experienced was the rather lackluster 2017/18 campaign. So this week, in a blog that I am sure many fans of rival clubs will enjoy remembering, and I look back on, laugh and glad those days are behind us, I shall be taking a look at this rather awful showing from the blunt Olympiakos team. With a poor title defence, a wretched Champions League showing and a managerial merry go round that made us a laughing stock in Greece and beyond. Let's look back, but with our hands slightly covering our eyes.    

 

The Squad and Transfers 

Much like last week let's start with the squad of misfits from the 17/18 campaign. In goal was the rather controversial figure of Stefanos Kapino, a former Panathinaikos player who at one point was touted as a big prospect between the sticks and who the previous season had taken over as the number one after the departure of Roberto. While his first season of consistent game time was unspectacular but nothing terrible, things could not have been better for the Greek international. 

After having a hand in a very poor 3-2 defeat to AEK Athens, Kapino had lost the faith of the club and more tellingly, Marinakis and was eventually axed from the club for his poor performances. He was eventually replaced with back up goalkeeper Silvio Proto, who was never going to be a long term replacement but was solid enough to help finish off the season in goal, until he himself departed the club.

 

The defence was also a bit of a shocker. Gone were the days of Manolas, Siovas and the talented Paniotis Retsos, who departed that summer in a big money move to Bayer Leverkusen. In their place was once consistent but now poor Alberto Botia, the tenacious but often self destructive Jagos Vukovic. This team also included the most expensive defender to sign for us to date, Bjorn Engels, a player who I actually predicted would join the club one day, but was also fairly error prone. Pape Abou Cisse and young talented Greek defender Dimitris Nikolaou were also present in the squad and at the time were probably two of the better performers in defence during their limited game time. 

 

One of the few players in the squad that came out with any credibility that season could be found at left back in the form of Leonardo Koutris. In a rather lumpy, slow, physical Thrylos side he was one of the most exciting players to watch, always running, always working hard in every game he played and he seemed to be mature in his attacking and defending despite his age at the time. There was also a combination of Croatian Hrvoje Milic and Iranian Ehasan Hajsafi but both made little impact during their time at the club and left just as quickly as they came.

 

Right back was a strange one, with a still not 100% Omar Elabdelloui teaming up with the somewhat solid but inconsistent Diogo Figueiras to man the right side of the defence. Figueiras would leave mid way through the season leaving Omar as the main right back along with Igor Silva as the back up and talented midfielder Thanasis Androutsos who can also play in the same position when called upon.

 

The midfield is some of my least favourite parts of the squad with the biggest flops in my opinion featuring. A whole host of players manned the middle of the park including Panagiotis Tachtsidis, the miss tackling Alaixys Romao, the big money flop Vadis Odjidja Ofe and the player with who I personally hold a lot of contempt, Guillaume Gillet who was critical upon his departure from the club after this season, about how he and a couple of his compatriots were treated despite himself showing no respect to the team the people who employed him or the fans during his time in Piraeus. 

 

There are one of two players in the midfield that I do give some leeway to for their performances. Andre Martins despite showing flashes of his talent was not the right fit for the club which is a reflection of his whole time in Greece due to lack of opportunity to flourish. Manolis Siopis was another player that, despite being an industrious player for Panionios was not given the game time to truly show that with us. Former Chelsea flop Marko Marin also showed his talent with us and while he flitted in and out of games he was certainly one of the better parts of the team. Kostas Fortounis actually had a decent season by the teams low standards, scoring ten in the league and was second top scorer in the team.

 

Up front it was a mixed bag to say the least. On the wing both Seba and Felipe Pardo by this point were not even inconsistent, they were bad and it spelled the end for both of them at the club. Mehdi Carcela, who was brought in on loan was as unprofessional as it got with people in the club criticising the Moroccan wingers work ethic. Even the long awaited return of Kevin Mirallas to the club on loan from Everton, was not enough to save the season, as Belgium was a shadow of the player that netted goals for fun in Piraeus all those years ago. 

 

The one shining light up front had to be Karim Ansarifard. The Iranian striker scored 17 goals in 25 league appearances and I believe that more would be made of his time with Olympiakos if he had been in a title winning team. Behind him in the pecking order were a real bunch of flops. Serbian forward Uros Durdevic who while was not a bad player just could not find the back of the net, hugely disappointing after arriving amid big expectations from a prolific goal scoring season with Partizan Belgrade. There was also the quick and versatile El Fardou Ben Nabouhane, who after a positive start to life in Piraeus quickly fell away and could not replicate his early purple patch in Champions League qualifying. Finally and the biggest waste of all was Fifa 13 cult hero Emmanuel Emenike. After the Nigerian striker signed for the club I was very excited, forgetting his real life goal scoring rate and, other than a late goal scored in Europe he was anonymous and was quickly let go in January.

 

Lastly I will take a quick look at all of the managers over the 2017/18 season who took charge of this train wreck of a team. Despite steering the club to its 7th title in a row Takis Lemonis was not given the full time job as head coach at Olympiakos. Instead the top job was given to one, Besnik Hasi, a man who still gives me shivers when thinking about his time in Piraeus. 

At first it seemed as though he was taking the team in the right direction, as the Greek champions comfortably manoeuvred their way through Champions League qualifying and into the group stage. Things began to take a turn for the worst however as results and performances in the league and in the group stage were extremely poor. The last straw for Marinakis was the match against AEK Athens, when Olympiakos took a 0-2 lead at half time, only to bottle that lead and lose 3-2 in truly embarrassing fashion. The very next day Hasi's time at the club came to a swift end and he was sacked. 

 

Takis Lemonis returned for a fourth managerial spell and he eventually was able to stabilise Thrylos League form and finish the end of the calendar year top of the table. In an odd move that was apparently due to disagreements with certain members of the squad Lemonis too was sacked and replaced by Oscar Garcia. His job was seemingly simple. With no European football in the second half of the season all the Spanish coach had to do was maintain a good enough form to keep Thrylos run to an 8th straight title and compete for the Greek Cup. This however proved too much as Olympiakos mixed form along with AEK and PAOK overtaking them saw Garcia also sacked, weeks before the end of the season. 

With the title all but lost Olympiakos hired current manager Pedro Martins for the following season and we haven't looked back.   

Domestic Campaign

For just some quick context I will also take a look at when it all started to go wrong. The writing was on the wall in the latter stages of the 2016/17 season. Despite being in cruise control going into the last 3rd of the domestic campaign and top of the league, the performances were not spectacular under the manager Paolo Bento. Things hit rock bottom for the Portuguese manager, as his Olympiakos side lost three games in a row to AEK away Panionios at home and PAOK in Thessaloniki. This would ultimately cost him his job, and as said before Takis Lemonis took over for the last few games of the campaign and won Thrylos the title.

 

At first, things seemed to be on the right track, with two wins to kick start the champions season. Very quickly however, it was evident that the early signs of form were temporary. After two disappointing draws, one of the big turning points for Olympiakos downfall was the first game against AEK. As I had referred to earlier after going 2-0 ahead at half time, the second half performance against Enosis was woeful. After two goals from Lazaros Chistodoulopoulos, one being a stunning free kick, Mantalos won the game a minute before the end of normal time to make it 3-2, establishing AEK as genuine title contenders and putting Olympiakos title defence in doubt. This as said before also cost Besnik Hasi his job.  

 

The club then made the decision to bring back Takis Lemonis as the supposed permanent manager, which is what the club should have done at the end of the previous season. After a mixed return for the experienced coach with a home loss to Atromitos, a win against PAOK only to lose away to arch rivals Panathinaikos, Olympiakos finally found some consistency from early November onwards. After winning six games in a row Thrylos went into the Christmas break top of the table as winter champions. The stage was set for Lemonis, despite his underwhelming style for football he brought to the club, to win his beloved Olympiakos their 8th league title in a row. Unthinkably though Lemonis too was shown the door despite steering the club back on the right track.

 

Oscar Garcia was brought in to continue the work of his predecessor. With a decent start to his tenure, 3 wins on the trot was followed by mixed form, a second loss to AEK in Piraeus and being overtaken by Enosis to top spot in the league. Despite a 5-1 victory over Kerkyra Garcia was sacked the very next day as by that time it was too little too late and AEK had all but secured their first Greek Super League title since 1994. 

Assistant coach Christos Kontis was given the task to see out the rest of the season, in which Thrylos lost their last three matches of the season and slipped to 3rd place in the table. Unsurprisingly Marinakis was not happy, axing many of the players and investing heavily to eventually take Olympiakos back to the top along with the hiring of Pedro Martins to guide the club back to the top of Greek football, which he eventually did seasons later.

 

To quickly touch on the Greek Cup campaign, after comfortably topping the Cup group stage as well as overcoming Platanias in the Round of 16. The Quarter Final is where Olympiakos exited, as AEK struck once again to knock Thrylos out over two legs. 

European Campaign 

Unlike their previous opponents however the task in the Group D seemed mountainous as Thrylos drew the group of death with Barcelona, Juventus and Sporting Lisbon lying in wait. Despite the difficulty of the task facing them it was hoped that this Olympiakos side would be capable of competing for a 3rd place spot, having previously beaten the Italian giants in seasons gone by and the team on paper seeming more than a match for Sporting. The outcome was far worse than anyone could have imagined. In an already must win game on Match Day 1, Olympiakos limped into half time 0-3 down at home to the Portuguese side. A late double from Felipe Pardo flattened the score line but the damage was done and Thrylos 3rd place hopes were already shattered after that 2-3 defeat in front of their home fans. 

 

Things went from bad to worse, as both Juve and Barca comfortably brushed aside an Olympiakos team who had no clear plan B. Things started to look a little more positive as a 0-0 draw in Piraeus against the Spanish side gave supporters hope that it was still possible to turn the campaign in Europe. Those hopes were quickly dashed as Olympiakos were once again out played by Sporting and after 3-1 loss in Lisbon ending any possibility of playing European football in the new year. A final defeat on Match Day 6 to Juventus cemented the fans' misery. Olympiakos finished the group stage in 4th place, a singular point and the worst record of any Greek side in the Champions League, although that record was broken the following season by AEK.   

   

A Brief Reflection

To end this blog on a more positive note I truly believe that Olympiakos needed to have a season as poor as this one to kick start a new era at the club. The cracks on the wall were starting to show in 2016/17 but were masked by winning the title and having a decent run in the Europa League and if Lemonis had stayed at the club, maybe we would have limped to the title again in 2017/18. But eventually everything catches up to you and the higher the highs the bigger the fall and who knows. Maybe we would still be getting over the effects of stagnation now. If it had not been for that one terrible season, it would not have given Marinakis the incentive to heavily invest in the team, allow Pedro Martins the transition season of 2018/19, and eventually bring the club back to the top of the Greek game last season. Either way 2017/18 was very tough as a fan to get through and even though those days are long behind us, we can always look back and laugh at that one season we all wish we could forget.

Hellas Football 

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