The British media reacted badly to our win last night. Here's one such report (Daily Mail) :-

HUMILIATED! United in need of yet another miracle after Moyes' men slip up in Greece... with an Arsenal loan star sticking boot in.
Passionate Olympiacos fans created a heated atmosphere inside the Karaiskaki Stadium.
United brought a good following, but the atmosphere was dominated by the hosts.

A superb historic night for us tonight as we beat the reigning champions of England, Manchester United by a 2-0 scoreline. We played well for the main part and were helped throughout the game by an absolutely dreadful Manure team. We made the best of a very makeshift lineup (no Saviola, No Siovas, Valdez recovering etc) and played to our strengths. The win sees us go to Manchester with a superb chance of qualifying to the next stage. Perez is looking like a very good purchase for our team already.

The only downside was the view of two totally empty gates due to UEFA's stupid insistence that we made rascist chants in the previous game.

Olympiakos 2-0 Manchester United
38' Dominguez
55' Campbell

Olympiakos : Roberto, Maniatis, Holebas, Manolas, Marcano, Salino, N'Dinga, Perez (85' Valdez), Campbell (67' Fuster), Dominguez (76' Machado), Olaitan.

Matchday 26 saw us thrash OFI with a largely second team XI. The only down point was Saviola going off injured in the 33rd minute. His replacement was Scepovic who had a great game and got his hat-trick in the remaining 60 minutes or so.

Saviola is now rated doubtful for the Manure game but we'll see for sure when the teams are announced on Monday.

OFI 0-4 Olympiakos

39 'Machado, 42', 52', 88' Scepovic

Olympiacos : Roberto, Salino, Papadopoulos, Manolas (59' Bong) Holebas, Samaras, Machado, Campbell, Fuster (62' Pele), Ibagaza, Saviola (33' Scepovic).

This is the picture of the ticket queue for the Manchester United game taken about an hour before the booths opened. No other comment needed.

Olympiakos will present our four recent acquisitions to the media this afternoon. Nelson Valdez, Hernan Perez, Ivan Marcano and Pele will talk about their move and answer a quesiton and answer session.

Some comments so far :-

Marcano: I'd like to thank the club and the fans. I want this season to be even better than previous. Thank you again everyone.

Perez: I'm very pleased that I came to Olympiakos. I hope to do the best I can. Thank you for the confidence you have shown me.

Marcano: I have been on loan for six months, but I have expectations to do perform well and remain in Olympiakos.

Valdez: It is an opportunity to play again in the Champions League, which is the dream of every player. I have many expectations and look forward to play against Manchester United.

Perez: I have taken part in the Champions League with Villareal. I am already looking forward to the matches with Manchester United.


The club also announced the signing of Roberto on a 4 year deal. The transfer is worth €6m but it is a very good price for a top class goalkeeper.

In the last couple of days we saw the largest Greek transfer to date when Kostas Mitroglou was sold to Fulham for €15m. The offer was too large to turn down to be honest and we've got €14.85m profit from him. Very nice and I wish him all the best in Fulham.

Obviously we need to replace him and his replacement comes in the shape of Paraguayan international Nelson Valdez. Valdez has played for Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and Valencia and has a decent enough European pedigree. We're going to be supposedly loaning him for 6 months whilst also retaining an option to buy outright.

We are also looking at replacements for Vladimir Weiss and these will be one of either :-

Oscar Trejo, 25 - an Argentine with Italian Passport who is currently signed to Toulouse and rated at €2m.

Hernan Perez, 24 - a Paraguayan with Italian Passport who is currently signed to Villareal and rated at €1.6m.

Trejo seems to have the edge at the minute and we're looking to complete both signings before midnight tomorrow.

Following on from UEFA's corrupt decision to partially close the stadium FOR NO FUCKING REASON AT ALL, the club has decided that the best way to do this is to full close gates 3 and 4 of Karaiskaki.

That way the UEFA observers will be happy, the supporters can be in Gates 5-7 of the end and the anti-racism group safely tucked away in London, nowhere near the stadium, can report their shambolic crap as normal.

We have a couple of changes to the roster which have happened over the christmas break. Portuguese midfielder Pele signed for us on a 3.5 year deal and has joined the club in training during the last two days. Leaving the club is Carl Medjani who was on loan from Monaco.
Medjani wasn't good enough for the team, surprising when you consider a player joining a Champions League level club from second division France (at the time).

There may be a few more players leaving during the month - rumours point to Yatabare and N'Dinga being cast off, Scepovic being pushed out on loan and Mitroglou being hunted by most clubs in Europe.

Perhaps a little more surprising is that the club has already said that there will be no more signings this month. So we have another transfer window where none of the money from Europe has been invested into the club.

We've announced the signing of Pele, a 26 year old Portuguese midfielder from Ergotelis. He signed a 3.5 year contract with total earnings exceeding €1m. He will start training at Rentis on the 30th December.

Strongly rumoured to be going in the other direction is Scepovic - on loan to Ergotelis for the remainder of the season.

Seems like our French contingent is on their way out. Both Yatabare and N'Dinga have failed to impress Michel and it seems likely that both will be leaving. It's uncertain what will be happening to Bong, he is starting matches but looks to be just a poor player and not at a level we require.
In any case, regardless of whether we lose both or perhaps all three players, we need to get replacements for them. I'm less than convinced that this will happen apart from perhaps Pele coming in from Ergotelis.