A Busy Spring So Far

Usually at this point, things are relatively quiet. Players are still on vacation, trade rumours are starting to pick up steam but not really amounting to anything, and more often than not we’re just left with the typical sports tabloid gossip.

Things have different this spring. In fact, it seems like every three or four days, another piece of news seems to surface which drastically affects the outlook for next season. I’ll try to recap the main highlights of the off-season so far, in order of significance:

• The first piece of news worth mentioning happens to also be the most recent. Just a few days ago, Jimenez was supposedly given an ultimatum: accept AEK’s offer within 48 hours or the offer would no longer be valid. The 48 hours passed and it seemed like Jimenez was still no closer to signing with us. Instead, things started to change when he began suggesting that he was hoping to return to Spain rather than continue with AEK. This became evident when I woke up to the news that not only had Jimenez not accepted our offer, but we acted quickly to secure Marinos Ouzounidis for next season. It was kind of a shock, and a move that came out of nowhere for me, but I’m kind of happy about it. Afterall, Jimenez had already given us a Cup and a Championship after his two stints with the team, and he also brought us on a decent run in Europe. Realistically he gave us all he could and while I’m grateful for how he turned the team around, I think its fair that he was looking for a new challenge in Spain. On the other hand, Ouzounidis is an experienced coach in Greece, someone who seems down to earth and prefers to stay out of the spotlight, and a coach who in all fairness did pretty well to keep PAO afloat despite all the challenges they faced these past two seasons. I think if he continues to receive the backing that Jimenez received, he could do very well for us.
• Lazaros ditched us and signed for Oly. This one also came as a shock to me though in hindsight, I guess it shouldn’t have since it sounds like hes left teams on bad terms in the past as well. The move didn’t make sense to me from his perspective: he had just finished possibly the best season of his career, with a championship winning team, and destined to play Champions League qualifiers next season with a chance at even making the group stages. Instead, he leaves that behind and goes to a team that can play Europa League at best and has a management group that is as volatile as ever. I guess the money was too good to say no to as far as he was concerned, but it makes you realize that loyalty just isn’t a concept that exists to certain players, especially when you become the first player in history to play for PAOK, PAO, AEK, and now Oly… He gave us some great moments, especially this season, but I would love to see the look on his face if AEK manages to finish higher than Oly yet again.
• While those last two pieces of news were quite shocking, this one wasn’t quite as much. It was, however, a great move on our part: AEK agreed to pay the buyout clause for Livaja, set at 1.8 million Euros. Its not what I would call cheap, but I would call it a bargain considering how reliable he was for us this season. I can’t remember if a deal has been put in place between Livaja and the club but either way, its great to know that he is ours now, and theres no risk of him being snatched back by Las Palmas.
• Araujo, on the other hand, has been all but confirmed to be going back to Las Palmas. This doesn’t surprise me really, as I was surprised we even managed to get him back on loan last season. He had a great season as well and definitely showed that he deserves a chance to feature more prominently with the Spanish side.
• Despite Notingham Forest being interested in promising Greek striker Christos Albanis, AEK were able to secure him before anyone else could. To be honest, I’m not too familiar with him yet, but from what I’ve been reading it sounds like he should be quite the prospect for us. I guess we’ll start to see in the friendlies which should be taking place in about a month or so.

I think that pretty much covers the majority of what has been going on so far this offseason, but please do let me know in the comments section if I forgot anything!

PS: I’m wishing nothing but a speedy recovery for Salah! As someone who doesn’t have a country to cheer for at the World Cup this summer for the first time in my lifetime, I was really hoping to see Salah have a good run in the tournament. Huge shame what happened to him today against Madrid, but hopefully he makes it back in time. Hes proven himself to be a class act all season long and definitely doesn’t deserve to be on the sidelines after the season he has had so far.

 

You Can’t Win Them All…

I was hoping this post would be a celebration of AEK winning its first double in over forty years. It seems like almost all of my posts lately have been nothing but good news. Naturally, there will be times when we can’t seem to win even if things are going our way and yesterday was one such example.

To be honest, I was attending a wedding all day and wasn’t able to watch the match live (or follow it for that matter as the ceremony was taking place as the game was going on). I did record it on TV here but after reading and hearing about what happened, I can’t even really bring myself to watch it. By all accounts, it seems as though AEK, with the exception of Barkas, simply did not show up to play.

I expected more from the team since the momentum definitely seemed to be in our favour, but on the other hand I know PAOK was the team that had more to prove. In the end, it showed as I haven’t heard anyone say that PAOK wasn’t clearly the better side. Its unfortunate, but at least the loss comes down to simply a matter of being outplayed rather than any other off the pitch incidents. Worth noting is the fact that a Spanish ref officiated the match. Again I wasn’t able to see much aside from a few highlights but it sounds like he did a great job of calling the match fairly and keeping things under control. Maybe we should get foreign refs for all derbies next season…

Oh well, all this means is that we’ll have to wait for next year to clinch the double!

Champions of Europe!

Just when you think this weekend can’t get any better for AEK supporters around the world, it does! After a night full of celebrations for the Championship win Saturday evening, our basketball club topped it all of by winning the FIBA Champions League trophy in Athens. The win came after a hard fought 100-94 win over Monaco, runners up in the tournament for the second year in a row.

The game was a little close for comfort at times but it must be said that AEK played a perfect game really. Aside from a few potentially costly errors towards the end, they executed their game perfectly for the majority of the match. Right from the start we were the stronger team with far more consistency in offense and a defensive cohesion that Monaco just couldn’t counter. While the usual suspects contributed to the match as expected, it was the unexpected MVP performance of Mike Green that proved to be the difference maker. As the commentators said, he played what was arguably the best game of his career to date. Without his performance, its safe to say the game could have ended up being a lot closer than it already was.

The last few minutes of the game were perhaps the most tense moments of the entire match:

It seems as though this weekend has just been one long party for AEK supporters in Athens. Just as they we’re recovering from a long night out yesterday on the streets of Nea Filadelfia, another celebration got underway at OAKA shortly after the end of the match:

It wasn’t just our supporters who were cheering on the team today. Jimenez and co were also present in the stands for the match:

What a weekend. All I can hope for is many more of these in the seasons to come.

The Fiesta We’ve All Been Waiting For

A fiesta that we’ve waited 24 years for, a fiesta that has been long overdue, finally Nea Filadelfia was able to celebrate the only way we know how. Flares, chanting, and a party that probably still lingers on the streets hours after the bus carrying the champions passed by.

The celebrations really started after our 1-0 win against Apollon Smyrnis, a game which technically was an away match though in reality was played in front of about ten thousand AEK supporters.

An open roof bus, painted specifically for this occasion, made its way from Rizoupoli stadium to Nea Filadelfia where it was, as expected, greeted by a sea of singing supporters. When I was re-watching some of the live coverage, people were estimating about thirty thousand supporters in the streets, and it certainly seemed that way from the video footage that I saw.

 

Its times like these when I would give anything to have the chance to be back in Greece. Its one thing to watch videos of this thousands of kilometers away but I truly cannot even imagine what it would have been like to be in Athens tonight. I’ve been around for some great moments, such as when we won the cup in 2011, but I have a feeling the atmosphere in Athens tonight would have been pretty unbelievable with the league now over, our basketball team in the Champions League final (tomorrow!) and the stadium on its way to being completed.

Now, as Melissanidis said earlier tonight, we look forward to more championships. With time, we might just be able to celebrate them in our new stadium before we know it!

Basketball Champions League Finalists!

After a tough game against Murcia that was a little too close for comfort, AEK managed to book its place in the Champions League Finals set to take place this Sunday. The final score of 77-75 was enough to put us through in front of what was, as to be expected, incredible support from our fans in Athens.