A 24 year old Greek left back from PAOK https://www.sportime.gr/paok/paok-apoklistiko-dinata-gia-giannouli-i-gouotfornt/
A new, young full back for either side sorted in the first week or pre-season would be excellent work
Same journalist that broke the Msimikas to Liverpool story. So he obviously has some sort of reliable connection. If this is true then pretty much confirms what we’ve all been saying, Estupinan will be gone.
Looks like our only competition is Napoli, Bologna, St Etienne and Stade Rennais. Basically, he’s in the bag!
Poor man's Tsimikas. Having said that, he still seems decent. Amusing that someone made the below video comparing the two: Seems he only made 2 Cup appearances for PAOK while Ivic was manager; he was still quite young though at the time and had Croatian international Leovac ahead of him. Other than that he was out on loan for Ivic's spell there to another top-tier Greek side Atromitos Athens.
This from his wiki is also reassuring, we're missing defenders like this: "On 15 May 2018, Giannoulis was one of nine players to make their Greek national team debuts in a 2–0 friendly loss against Saudi Arabia. He was sent off after 43 minutes of the match.[9]"
How does this rumour fit in with Leventhal’s suggestion we’re trying to keep Estupinan? Maybe Masina leaving too?
Yep they need Holebas to get through their champions league campaign. Odd as he was clearly not good enough for us.
Seems Adam Masina is being linked to Genoa, would be happy enough to sell him and get this lad in from Greece.
I'd be happy with that (I don't know if this Greek fella can play CB too, but it's not as if Masina regularly played there, especially in a back 4), although we can't bank on it with the other teams also in for him!
I had a severe case of Dimitris Giannoulis at University, nasty little rash and took ages to clear up.
I wouldn’t take it as a given that signing this lad would mean Estupinan is off. Plenty of stories going around that we are adamant he will be part of our squad. Either way, I had to cancel a weeks holiday in Croatia at short notice yesterday for obvious reasons - and now we are off to Athens for a week so I’ll keep an eye on the Greek media!
I have a holiday to Crete in the balance as of yesterday. Supposed to fly out the 17th of September. The agents emailed yesterday saying its highly unlikely that any flights from Norway will be going to Greece due to the restrictions.
Yeah I suspect it’ll be added to many countries ‘Red list’ before Sept 17th sadly. Deciding to go there at all is a gamble really as the rate is around 15.0 with the cutoff being 20.0. Fingers crossed for you (and me!).
Ok. Norwegian government has a cut off at 22.5 and said Greece was above this on Wednesday hence the email. They said they will update every 7 days. Tbh it's not looking good at all.
Yeah, the UK govt seem to be announcing things every Thursday afternoon and giving people 24-48hrs to get back home from destinations. As of yesterday, Greece was 14.7 so is seemingly safe for another week at least. But for context, Croatia was 11.3 a week ago so I looked okay for my holiday - it was 28.0 yesterday. So changeable!
I came back from Greece on Sunday (went to Thessaloniki then onto the coast nearby), seemed so much less hysterical about it all over there and everywhere was pretty well set up for social distancing. They've had a spike, but the numbers are so low it looks worse than it is. It would be farcical if the government slapped a restriction on them, but nothing that circus and the clown in charge do surprises me anymore. Athens is a good choice, loads to do and great restaurants. Where were you supposed to be going in Croatia and did you get your money back?