Hellas Football

Returning to the Greek Super league in 2018 and finishing in fifth left nothing but optimism for the future of Aris FC. After the successful season, the Kitrinomavri earned the opportunity to qualify for next season’s Europa League Qualification process, allowing the chance to once again cement itself as a Greek Super league powerhouse. In preparation for the Europa league qualification process, President Theodoros Karapidis was pro-active in everything he did, preparing the Kleanthis Vikelidis stadium with shiny new seats and signing notable big players. His signings included former Olympiakos and West Bromich Albion striker Brown Ideye, Daniel Sundgren from AIK, Lindsay Rose from Lorient and the re-signings of Fetfatzidis, Basha and Bruno Gama. At this time there was speculation that Aris had signed too many ‘country-men’ on one year contracts and would make it difficult for the team to gel or build anything sustainably good for the future. Coach Pantelidis first competitive g...

The blog you’re about to read was written in May 2019, shortly after Manolo’s departure and before Cardoso’s name was even mentioned, but at the end I decided against posting it. In this blog I laid out my objections with the club’s decision to throw Jimenez under the bus and predicted another managerial failure in the pursuit of “attacking and exciting football”. Fast forward 3 months later and AEK is out of Europe and endured a horrible start to their league campaign thanks to none other than Cardoso, Lyberopoulos and to an extent Melissanidis. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manolo Jimenez has been called to get AEK out of trouble numerous times in these past few years.  During his second stint at AEK he didn’t only get AEK out of trouble but he also gave them the best season in the club’s history in decades. He managed to get a limited squad, assembled with limited funds and make them unbeaten in Europe for 14 game...

We are approaching the 2019/2020 Greek Super League season, AEL claim they are more settled than ever before since the fairy-tale title winning 1987-88 season 31 years ago. Questions are starting to surround the club whether they are settled in terms of the management or will continue to prolong the mediocrity mostly caused by the controversial owner Alexis Kougias with his lunatic actions. Stadium: AEL FC Arena Earlier this off-season, Alexis Kougias has settled an agreement with the stadium’s stakeholder and businessman Kostas Piladakis (Owner of AEL: 2004-2013) for the use of AEL FC Arena at a cost of €300,000 annually, as well as confirming it will be the venue to host European games for AEL if they qualify with included bonuses, and access to various facilities. Unlike last season the stadium’s concession was in threat that would have forced the club to play away from Larissa. Kougias stressfully resolved the issue by closing the North and South stands of the stadium, pur...

The answer to my question is an emphatic YES! Names being thrown around as possible replacements leave a lot to be desired. John van’t Schip, Thomas Doll, Manolo Jimenez! Wow what a list of wage thieves umm I mean coaches. Okay maybe I’m being harsh on Jimenez but ho-hum. There’s a common theme here with the foreign names being linked. They all started off with impressive jobs but stuffed it up and went from bad to worse to currently being unemployed to a point that this job is attractive or in most cases only job on offer to them. And let’s be honest, if they had a tiny bit of success with us they’d run to the first club job on offer. Just one quick look at their coaching careers and you’ll see they’ve been all over the world like a yo-yo. Can I call them mercenaries looking for a job till something better arrives? Yep. I can, and I have. I could add the Greeks linked to the job like Dellas, Ouzounidis but I won’t as I’d say they’ve been added to the list purely as lip s...

Angelos Anasatasiadis has apparently been sacked. It only took half of summer for the inevitable to happen but I'm sure everyone was looking forward to their summer break as you know... its really important you don't miss out on that.  Will a new coach make a difference?  Anyone that follows me on twitter would see I am very critical of the senior players in the team, most notably Papastathopoulos and Manolas. I'm sick of seeing Sokratis post soppy apologies to Arsenal fans when his team loses. I'm sick of seeing videos of Manolas tell us all how much he loves Olympiakara Olympiakara (and I'm a fan of the club) Y et no love to us fans, no apology to us Greeks? Nah, stuff that.  Both stay silent and run to Grammenos saying its all the coaches fault. Yep, that old chestnut. The easiest of easy cop outs. Its June, the sun is shining, get me the hell out of here, but don't blame me, its all the coaches fault we are bad. We are a shamble, and it's embar...

It is looking likely that th is  forthcoming Greek Super League season will be a particularly tough one, for one of the oldest and most historic teams in all of Greek Football , Panionios. Various issues are casting a  huge  shadow over the club  and  they are  threatening to derail their season before it even begins. The most  immediate  issue,  is the fact that  Panionios  will begin their 2019/20   Super League  campaign  on the backfoot , starting the  season  on -6 points.  A  punishment  handed down by the  Hellenic Football Federation  for Panionios ,   “not meeting the  conditions for a license to compete  in the Championship”,  by virtue of the debts they owe to various entities. In addition  to this setback ,  Panionios  ha ve  also been hit with a transfer embargo , similar to the one suffered by Panathinaikos. During this current ...