Hello and welcome to the next post in my European Alphabet Challenge story. I am now half the way through my 1st season in Greece, and well, I hope it will be my only season in Greece. It’s not that we’ve done badly, but I just really dislike the country for football. Anyway, I will firstly cover the results and table, before looking at January signings:
We have had a very strong first half, and have terrifically done the double over arch rivals Panathinaikos. We also have a win against another big rival, AEK Athen, with the return match still to be played. In the Greeky Cup, we overcame some non-league side 7-0 on aggregate before meeting OFI in the 4th round. We beat them 3-2 on aggregate, and with Panathinaikos, AEK Athens and PAOK all knocked out, we are the only ‘big’ side left in it. Hopefully we can win it with considerable ease then.
As you can see, we are currently 2nd, however we have 2 games in hand over current leaders, PAOK. PAOK are the only other side challenging us for the title, and it will be tough as they won the division last year. Incredibly, Panathinaikos are 9th at this point, which shows just how poor they’ve been. Funny, as they came runner’s up last season.
Now for the transfers. Nobody left in January, so I only brought in 2 players.
I signed Roberto and Luuk van de Brink in the winter window, and when I said nobody left… one player did but I will explain when I show you van de Brink.
Roberto: ML (Free Transfer)
I signed young ex-Valencia winger Roberto on a free as I seriously needed more options. With one of my wingers feeling ‘homesick’ despite being Cypriot and playing with us for 7 years now, I brought in this kid. I am refusing to play that Cypriot winger as he is being stupid. He may not look great, but the availability of good ML’s for us is poor.
Luuk van de Brink: ST (£0 Loan Fee / 100% of wages — From sc Heerenveen)
You will not have seen van de Brink before however I signed him on loan for Wolfsburg as backup before I made the move to Dortmund. He is a young and quite good ST but will mainly serve as cover. I wasn’t really in the market for a ST in January until I realised that Adielson Carlos, who I signed on loan from Atletico Mineiro, hadn’t scored at all in 7 games with an average rating of 6.43. I wasn’t happy with that so as I signed van de Brink, I also cancelled Carlos’ loan spell.
On top of the loan signing of van de Brink, I also secured him a pre-contract deal with Olympiakos, so if I end up staying another season, I will have him. Hopefully he will be a vast improvement on Adielson Carlos.
Thanks for reading and please comment/vote!
