The “voices” for an immediate change in Panathinaikos and the objective difficulty for this scenario, the attempt to relieve the situation and the search for next year’s coach.
What happened and what followed after the match with Aris, drastically changed Alafouzou’s thoughts and turned the clock backwards for Fatih Terim on the Panathinaikos bench, as the situation is now irreversible.
Even after the very hard defeat six days ago by AEK in the title match of New Philadelphia, Yiannis Alafouzos had as his main thought the continuation of the joint course with Fatih Terim and the next season, having even held initial discussions with him, regarding the planning of the next season.
With what this… entailed, as it is clear that the Turk would like a general restructuring of the Panathinaikos roster (with a large number of departures), bringing back the destructive logic of the rave-xylone that crushed the “clover leaf” every season until 2021.
From Sunday night (28/4), however, and the (condemning) game with Aris, the specific thoughts of the owner of the football team Panathinaikos changed drastically.
What happened in the game against the “yellow and black” of Thessaloniki with the shocking, anti-football alchemy on the part of the Turkish coach who put his whole team into a process of… panic in the second 45 minutes (closing the match with a 3- 1-6), the sad image of the team on the grass and the very big reactions of the crowd showed Alafuzos in a very clear way that Terim cannot “stand” next season on the bench of Panathinaikos!
It is now a given that the “paper” of the 70-year-old technician has now “burned” and there is no going back, with Alafuzos realizing that the very big risk he took on December 26, has now “exploded” of, along with the failure to win the championship.
Terim has completely lost the confidence of everyone in the dressing room, his outdated playing options and the way he approaches games is heartbreaking, while his poor management of the most expensive roster of the last decade has led to the competitive “disappearance” of the half group.
A combination that has now brought the hourglass counting down for the Turkish technician.
The main issue at this time for the entire organization of the “clover” is, firstly, not to end this season even more disastrously for Panathinaikos (in the event that they come 4th in the standings and not win the Betsson Greek Cup) and secondly, not to ” be mortgaged” the next year as well.
The “voices” for immediate change and the “but”
There are “voices” that argue that the change should be made much more immediately, within this 2.5 week break until the May 15 match against PAOK in Toumba, in order to turn the tide immediately and not lose then the Betsson Greek Cup goal,
However, this scenario is difficult in terms of timing, because in this case the main issue is that there are no “normal” coaches (let alone, from the wider Panathinaikos family) who would take on a “kamikaze” role for the next 30 days.
Attempting to unload and collect
In the first phase, an effort has been launched to defuse the climate within the next few days and to calm the whole atmosphere, while there will also be an internal investigation and discussion about the reasons that led to this competitive picture of collapse in the last week.
And all the weight will fall on putting the whole situation together, given that there are two very pivotal games in the playoffs, during which Panathinaikos must regroup in order to avoid the 4th place and go with as much concentration and unity as possible to the final of May 25 with Aris in Panthessalikos.
In any case, however, the greens are now entering the process of searching for next year’s coach, after the profile and model of the technician with whom the team will travel from June onwards has been outlined.