AEL: Back to Square One

 By Michael_Vissini

It’s been less than 24 hours since the club have sacked Giorgos Petrakis courtesy of 

the heavy 2-5 home loss to Volos that was met with strong jeering from AEL fans 

during and after the match. The right decision was made to let go of the 37 year old 

and I wish him nothing but the best wherever he goes for the young coach.

There lies the problem – young. I’m not here to deconstruct Petrakis coaching style 

but his inexperience in the Greek top flight was exposed in the litmus test against 

Volos. Credit to Volos who were simply outstanding from start to finish and never 

stepped out of gear. Even after scoring their fifth, they were still piling on the misery 

for AEL and were left with no answer.

The problem mostly lies what happened during the summer and the club's purposes 

it undertook in order to stay afloat in the Super League.

Dating back to the summer, the coaching position was left vacant after promotion 

winning coach Alekos Vosniadis announced he was not continuing at the club for the 

new season & Giorgos Petrakis was appointed weeks after the Super League 2 

season ended.

The appointment was not met with much confidence amongst the fans as Petrakis's 

last job was with relegated Cypriot club Omonia 29 Maious. AEL's approach was to 

continue having a Greek coach at helm after the success with Vosniadis but a 37 year 

old who's only success is the Luxembourg championship and Kifisia's 2023 promotion 

may seem credible but these accolades aren't something to boast about. 

Every other club he has coached he was given the boot and it was just not good enough from the 

AEL board to go in this direction and I am sure there were better options available.

Moreover, overhauling nearly the entire promotion-winning squad with only nine 

players remaining most notably the top-scorer Giannis Pasas, Savvas Mourgos, Luca 

Andrada, Thanasis Papageorgiou & Theoharis Iliadis. 

The rest were offloaded and AEL started the transfer spree of signing twenty players. 

You read that correctly, twenty players! In my opinion, the newly acquired players aren't the problem

 but to essentially rubbing out nearly the entire championship-winning team makes for hard 

viewing knowing this crop won promotion unbeaten all last season under Vosniadis.

Do the mathematics here. An inexperienced coach and an overhauled squad. The 

writing was on the wall. As we all know, The Greek Super League is a whole different 

beast, and we have seen time and time again newly promoted sides repeat the same 

typical mistakes to stay afloat.

Petrakis just lasted nine games in charge, but the football that was said displayed 

wasn't terrible. More so that the team just needed the time to gel together. His only 

win was against Kalamata in the Greek cup to qualify for league phase on his debut. 

Every other result was a draw and loss, but again the football wasn’t terrible.

Losing away to PAOK in Round 1 was expected, then came the draws against Kifisia, 

Asteras, AEK and Atromitos where in 3 out of 4 these matches AEL were trailing and 

fought back to draw but also could’ve taken all 3 points by sharpening their shooting 

but most importantly tighten up the defence. Somewhere in between was the 2-2 

draw against second division side GS Marko in the cup, one of the worst 

performances under Petrakis and then afterwards 2-1 loss to high-flying Levadiakos 

with another dismal display.

However, it was this home match against fellow Thessalian side Volos in Round 6 

where everything was on the line for AEL to go one step ahead. Instantaneously, AEL 

were on the back foot after Volos hit the front from the 2nd minute and AEL were just 

playing catch-up from there on.

Despite equalising twice, Volos would immediately react and regain their lead but 

ultimately ran riot with scintillating attacks and not only completely demoralise AEL, 

but demolish everything that was built over the summer that led to Petrakis fall on 

his own sword and lose his job. The double substitution by Petrakis to put Giousis 

and Staikos on the 87th minute epitomised the horror show at AEL FC Arena, much to 

the dismay of the AEL fans jeering for the coach’s resignation.

A disjointed, uncoordinated AEL side had nothing to show for against Volos despite 

the well-spirited performances from the previous league results. Conceding cheap 

goals that were easily preventable. To make matters worse, Nondas Pantelakis was 

taken off during the half-time break due to a hand injury and is out for two months.

What also capped off this horrific night that this was AEL's heaviest home defeat 

since the 1995/96 season, 2-6 against OFI in Round 3. It should be noted this very 

same season AEL got relegated to the second division while during this time the 

golden generation of players from the 1980s had all but faded away.

Obviously, the aim for this season for AEL was to survive relegation and as we all 

know this is never an easy task for any newly promoted side, but to throw away 

everything built in the summer by dishing up this performance against Volos was 

nothing but disgraceful.

It is a blessing in disguise that the sacking of Giorgos Petrakis has come at the right 

time just as the October international break begins. Unfortunately for Petrakis he is 

not yet ready to manage in the Greek Super League and not the first time he's tried, 

previously at Lamia in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

So, back to square one and what everyone AEL fan mostly predicted has happened. A 

combination of a young inexperience Greek coach and the unnecessary overhaul of 

the promotion winning squad has led to AEL to hit the reset button.

Funny to think AEL were undefeated all last season to win promotion to being 

winless in the first 6 games and already flirting with relegation. Not looking good 

going forward at this point of time. Now with two weeks of no club football, time for 

reflection and hire Petrakis replacement who can band together the playing group in 

quick succession – a proven coach. Key word; proven.

I will emphasise ‘quick succession’ more here. AEL’s next match is against the current 

Greek champions Olympiakos and this will be held at AEL FC Arena and always, it is 

one of most anticipated fixtures any time AEL faces Olympiakos.

So let’s see what happens from now.

@Michael_Vissini

Hellas Football