The Summer So Far

The Summer transfer window is not nearly closed yet, so a good bit more will likely happen. I hope so anyway. We still have some serious holes to fill. But things have slowed to such a point that there is little to write about or even link to. Saja is supposed to officially sign today, but that is old news.

So perhaps its time to look at what has happened so far. Here then is who is out:

Pantelis Kapetanos
Frederico Azcarate
Akis Zikos
Manu
Mohamed Kallon
Christos Bourbos
Marcello Moretto
Daniel Tozser
Julio Cesar

Not bad. I could quibble about Tozser or Kallon perhaps, but we got good money for Tozser and his role has been usurped by Rivaldo.  Kallon is an excellent striker, but he’s notoriously difficult to manage, so I can’t really fault management for releasing an ego from a team already filled with difficult personalities (speaking of egos, don’t forget, we just signed Saja!). Bourbos perhaps needed some more time to develop, but I don’t think he’ll get much better. Zikos and Cesar were loyal servants but Zikos recognized his good years were behind him and AEK recognized the same thing on Cesar’s behalf. Nothing too worrisome about who has been let go then.

And here who is in:

Ismael Blanco
Edinho
Antonis Rikka
Sebastian Saja
Nathan Burns
Ignacio Scocco
Daniel Majstorovic

Plus, let’s not forget the close to a dozen players returning from loans most of whom will either get loaned back out or released: Chronis, Hetemaj, Diouf, Katroumonos, Barboudis, Gentsoglou, Zorbas, Paligiorgos, Fysekas and Sorrentino (yes, the melancholy keeper has not found a club willing to pay his transfer price, so he may be forced back to AEK for another year).

These are excellent signings. AEK has acquired the rights to Ismael Blanco and Edinho and signed both to contracts. This is a terrific, if unsurprising, development as they, along with Rivaldo, were the heart of our attack for the second half of the season, they are proven entities, they are familir to the club and they want to stay. Our attack is further bolstered by the addition of Rikka, Burns and Scocco.

Four defense, we still lack any sort of depth in the full back positions. As of right now, it looks like Georgeas will start at Right Back and Aruabarrena at Left Back, but if either of them are injured we’ll have to rely on some untested youngters or play someone else out of position (Nsaliwa used to play right back but he made a pretty costly error the one game he played at full back for AEK last season). Rikka was a very important signing for us as the departure of Zikos left us without a reliable, hard tackling defensive midfielder to interrupt play and build from the back. Rikka is supposed to fill that role for us, but again, what happens if he gets hurt? There is Nsaliwa, but he can’t anchor the midfield by himself and did not impress last season (he had a few excellent games but was not consistent throughout the season). Meanwhile, we have an embarassment of riches at the center back spots, wtih not two, not three, not four but five world-class center backs: Dellas, Papastathopoulos, Majstorovic, Alves and Alexopoulos. Okay, Alves is not world-class but he’s a fine back-up. And who knows if Alexopoulos will ever recover his pre-injury form, but still, that is a lot of very good center backs for one team.

Based on all of the above, if the season started tomorrow, here is how we might line up:

            Blanco—-Scocco (or Burns)

Rivaldo
Lagos—————Edinho
Rikka

Arruabarrena————Georgeas
       Dellas—-Papast (or Majs)

Saja (or Macho)

That does not look half bad.  Now, I admit, I don’t know anything about Donis’s preferred tactics, and the above formation is attack oriented and arguably leaves a lot of responsibility on Rikka’s shoulders, but look at that starting 11.  That is 11 serious footballers, all competent, some remarkably talented, solid in the back, threatening on the attack, with a decent chance of controlling the middle of the park.  Plus, that formation would faciliate some very attractive football, something Donis has promised.  Now, I know that a lot of AEK fans were tremendoulsy dissapointed with Arruabarrena last season, but I liked what I saw.  I think part of the problem was that expectations got out of hand.  I play on a team with an Argentinian who has followed Arrubarrena’s career for some time, and he said he has always been a quiet player who takes care of business on his side of the pitch.  And that is what he did for us.  When he was on the field, I never worried about getting killed down the left, and sure enough, most chances for our opponents came down the right or center.  At any rate, he deserves another chance, and I think he’ll get it if he shows any effort at all in pre-season training.

But what the above line-up show more than anything else is the need for some reinforcements.  We need to make some shrewed signings, and soon.  We need another full back, preferably for the left since, arguably, Ramos SIlva can play Right Back.  We need another defensive midfielder.  Indeed, this is where we need to spend the big money.  With another qulaity defensive midfielder, if the attacking formation I outlined above does not work, we can play with two anchors, and use Nsaliwa as an alternate, move Rivaldo to the left, and drop one of the strikers in a little.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I hope we have more news to dissect soon.  Post your disagreements (or agreements, but as we are all AEK fans, I expect you to disagree!) in the comments section.