Paniliakos FC

Paniliakos FC Fan Blog

Former AC Milan youngster HachimMastour is expected to join Greek outfit PAS Lamia in the next few days. The 20-year-old was regarded as one of the highly promising players when he broke through at AC Milan. He signed for the club in 2012. However,Mastour’s career has stalled since making the move to Milan as a youngster. He has struggled to break through from the large deal of highly quality players at the Italian outfit. Furthermore, it has also not been beneficial that the club has been going through a transitional period with focus on a switch from older to younger players.

During his time at AC Milan,Mastour was never able to make a first-team appearance.
However, he was sent out on loan to the likes of Malaga and Zwolle in the hope of helping him find first-team football. Even such moves turned out to be futile since the midfielder largely spent most of his time in the bench. AC manager Gennaro Gattuso, however, was impressed by the youngster in terms of his skills and pace. His signing will be a huge boost forPAS Lamia, who were able to finish 13th in the table last season. However, the new campaign has brought about a disastrous start for the Greek outfit, who have suffered back-to-back defeats to start the new campaign.

Carlisle United have been able to bring in a great defender in the form of Dimitris Kotsonis on a short-term trial. The defender was given a run out in the 2-0 victory over Penrith, who were the latest friendly opponents for Carlisle. The 29-year-old is quite an experienced asset for Carlisle and the wide consensus is that the player will sign up for the club on a permanent basis.Kotsonis is well travelled and he has played for several clubs in Europe. In fact, he was even representingPaniliakos at one stage in his career.

The player was recommended to Carlisle United by his agent. Manager John Sheridan decided to take a punt on the player and he was utilised for the full 90 minutes in the game againstPenrith. As a result of keeping a clean sheet in his first game in charge of the team, Kotsonis’ is likely to go up soon. The manager, though, tried to keep the player on the ground by claiming that his performances were quite decent in the game without being spectacular. This was the first pre-season match for Carlisle and they were able to get the victory due to goals from Cole Stockton and Max Brown.

Arsenal’s new summer signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos has spoken about his close friendship with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from their time together with Borussia Dortmund. The Greece international became the club’s third signing of the summer transfer window after making the switch from Dortmund earlier this month and he has since been reunited with former teammates Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Speaking to Arsenal Player, Sokratis admitted that he had good bond with Aubameyang on the pitch, considering both of them joined Dortmund in the same year (2013). Meanwhile, he added that the two were unable to speak German during their maiden campaign but they could gel together as they were well-versed with the Italian language.

Jack Rodwell has been forgotten man over the last couple of seasons and he could end his association in English football by making a move to Greek club AEK Athens in the summer. After Sunderland’s relegation into the League One, it looks highly unlikely that Rodwell will be able to extend his contract with the Black Cats. Last season, Rodwell had just one victory with Sunderland – as a starter – throughout the campaign. Sunderland have been dropping down the English footballer faster than a rock and they now find themselves in the third tier of English football.

A number of Sunderland players have been linked with moves elsewhere. Rodwell, himself, was linked with a move to Bolton, but plenty of financial issues at the club has resulted in them all being called off. MLS clubs have also shown interest in the midfielder who is capable of playing in a number of positions. Now, AEK Athens are close to signing him and this move could become a huge positive for all parties concerned. After staring at the possibility of playing in League One only a few months ago, Rodwell could be playing in the Champions League. It is widely expected that he will be ready to accept any offer from AEK Athens, who are ready to pay only around £ 30,000 per week for the midfielder.

FIFA has given a stern warning to Greece that the nation will be pulled off from any international competitions if the domestic game in the country continues to be hit by violence and match fixing issues. Greece has been a struggling country when it comes to dealing with this plan. Just as the nation has collapsed, there is a danger of Greece being taken out of the international scenario. The Greek league has been recently suspended after being found guilty of match fixing. While further problems came in the form of PAOK showing violence in a recent match, the international governing body of football has decided to come in with a stern warning.

FIFA has claimed thatGrexit is now a distinct possibility. This has been debriefed to the sports minister of Greece and the Greek soccer Federation president. Greek football has been plagued by a lot of violence issues throughout the last decade. The matters hit headlines recently when PAOK team owner threatened the referee with a gun in his strap. The PAOK team owner decided to take things into his own hands after watching an inconclusive decision from the referee. This would have directly affected his team’s chances of going top of the table. The PAOK team owner faces a ban of at least five years along with a fine of € 50,000. PAOK are also starring at the prospect of relegation.

Greece national team coach Michael Skibbe claims that Saudi Arabia will undergo a difficult World Cup 2018 campaign. Saudi Arabia were able to claim a 2-0 victory over Greece in a recent friendly match between the two teams. After the appointment of Juan Antonio Pizzi, Saudi Arabia seem to have made a lot of strides that hold them in good stead going into the World Cup 2018. The opening match of the tournament will witness Saudi Arabia taking on hosts Russia on June 14.

Greece was able to end a run of three consecutive matches without a victory by beating Egypt 1-0 in a friendly match. This was the first victory for Greece since October. Michael Skibbe was quite happy with the manner of the performance, while Nicholas Karelis scored the only goal of the game in the 29^th minute. The 2004 European champions had a lot of pressure coming into the game, as they had poor form for the last few months. This would not be a good sign as they have already missed out on World Cup 2018 participation.

Greek football is all set to resume from this week after being absent from action for the last three weeks. All forms of Greek top-flight football were left suspended after a club owner carried a pistol to challenge the referee in a recent match. PAOK owner came onto the pitch with a gun to his belt. This forced the Greek football authorities to suspend the league from March 12.

The future of football in Greece has been quite bleak due to several political and financial crisis that had hit the country. However, Stelios Giannakopoulos believes that there could be a brighter future for football in his country. Stelios who had ended his playing career back in 2010, worked as head of the Greek PFA. During that period, he was also working on getting his coaching badges.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has decided against the loan exit of Konstantinos Mavropanos after he made a huge impression on his first training session. The Greece youth international joined the Gunners from PAS Giannina for £2.2m earlier this month, and Wenger initially suggested that the centre-back was not ready to handle the rigours of the Premier League.

However, the French tactician made a surprise decision to place Mavropanos on the bench for Wednesday's goalless versus Chelsea in the League Cup semi-final, and he has opted to keep him at the Emirates for the campaign, he said: "I personally want to keep him until May. The first signs have been so encouraging so we will keep him until May [the end of the season]."