Hello and welcome to the next post in my European Alphabet Challenge where I am in Greece with Olympiakos. I was really lucky to get this job and I didn’t have to do too much to the squad really. Here are the transfers out:
Most of these deals were done by the previous manager, however I allowed the departures of Vichas on loan to Stevenage and down. Two of our best players left for large fees, which are the top 2 transfers, so I needed to slightly improve the squad:
I didn’t bring in Pedro Silva, again the previous manager signed him, however the rest are mine.
Patrick: ST (£0 Loan Fee / 100% of Wages — From Dortmund)
From my time at Dortmund, I knew of 1 player who would make use of the time on loan in the Greek Super League. I signed Patrick from Brazilian side Flamengo for Dortmund last season for £1m compensation, and now I have taken him on loan with me into Greece. Hopefully he can provide good cover and potentially improve his ability during the loan spell.
Stanislav Georgiev: MC (£3.4m Fee — From Cherno More)
I signed Georgiev as a powerful midfielder and for £3.4m, his release clause, it wasn’t too high of a fee to pay. He will be rotated with our other good midfielders. The Bulgarian International is quite good technically and therefore he should do well against the less technical teams in the division, holding that midfield.
Pedro Gustavo: GK (£1.1m Fee — From BATE)
I was in search for a keeper and when I saw Pedro Gustavo with a £1.1m release clause attached to his name, I decided to go in for him. He has good goalkeeping abilities and should hopefully keep out a lot of goals this season. I already had a good defence, and therefore signing a good goalkeeper will hopefully be the last piece in the defensive puzzle.
Sander Prins: ML (£3.5k p/m Loan Fee / 50% of Wages — From Hoffenheim)
The only position that I couldn’t fill with sufficient quality was ML. There was seriously nobody of quality on the left side available to me. Prins is purely backup to an ageing Panteli, my current ML. To be honest, he was only signed as a desperation move.
Adielson Carlos: ST (£12k p/m Loan Fee / 50% of Wages — From Atletico Mineiro)
I was looking for depth in the striker role, so I picked up Adielson Carlos for a cheap loan. Hopefully he can provide sufficient backup and help the side with a decent goals return.
So, with transfers out of the way, the last thing to show you is the pre-season fixtures we played:
We kicked off the friendlies with a game at home against my old side from last season, Dortmund. That ended with a positive 3-3 draw. We then went to England to face Blackpool and came out with an expected victory winning 2-0. We then played 2 friendlies against weak teams to boost morale, winning 3-0 and 1-0. All in all, a good pre-season.
Thanks for reading and please comment/vote!
