General Chat

[Dean97]

ok guys lets do something for a laugh - I want to create a best 11 pus 4 subs - of the best Eternal talents of the last 15 years - players who fell WAAAAYYYYYY short of the hype they were given.Ill start with players off the top of my head and once we have a good size list we can start putting the team together im just going to list names for now not in any positional order feel free to add any i have forgotten or you think should be there. Now the selection criteria is a combination of Hype vs how shit they actually were and also the length of time they were considered a talent should be taken into account.

Ninis
Fetfatzidis
Koutsianikoulis
Panagiotis Vlachodimos
Mendrinos
Harilaos Pappas
Makos
Lagos
Pliatsikas
Fakoinos
Filipakos
Taralidis
Sifakis
Balafas
Iliadis
Leontiou
Mantzios
Galitsios
Dimoutsos
Mavrias

You’ve opened up a very interesting discussion. Ninis and Fetfatzidis are the best of the bunch and you can’t compare them to the rest. I remember a player called Andreas Tatos. I really rated him. Great passer, good vision and could win headers for a shorter player. Scored nice free kicks and was excellent with set pieces. He a good playmaker. Olympiakos never really gave him a chance. He was at his best with Aris. Here are some of his best moments...

https://youtu.be/0gIzGnGeflg

Another notable mention is Giorgos Katidis.

[Reaper]

Another notable mention is Giorgos Katidis.

If he had made a gesture in favour of Stalin instead of Hitler, he would probably by NT captain about now knowing the Greek reality.

Box to box midfielder, could score, pass, hard tackled. Had it all - just the wrong politics.

[ThrylosG7]

You’ve opened up a very interesting discussion. Ninis and Fetfatzidis are the best of the bunch and you can’t compare them to the rest. I remember a player called Andreas Tatos. I really rated him. Great passer, good vision and could win headers for a shorter player. Scored nice free kicks and was excellent with set pieces. He a good playmaker. Olympiakos never really gave him a chance. He was at his best with Aris. Here are some of his best moments...

https://youtu.be/0gIzGnGeflg

Another notable mention is Giorgos Katidis.

ahh yes Tatos - Ill add him to the list Im waiting for Amorgos to contribute his memory is better than mine. Katidis is another good shout which I forgot , Reaper is right , the guy got hounded out of the country for making one stupid gesture but walking around with a hammer and sickle T shirt is considered cool. Regardless he qualifies because he was a talent that people raved on about who went nowhere. Regarding Oly not giving him a chance its because he wasnt good enough its a huge step from Atromitos to Olympiacos - ive said it countless times that players will always end up at the level their mentality and talent takes them. Oly get a bad wrap for not playing certain players who are apparently amazing but if they are so good why dont they become great after they leave ?? Or if they think they are so good but not getting a game , why do they stay with the club for seasons on end ?? Once you make the jump to Oly because we have had the best squad for the last 20 years in Greece - these players who are good at mid table clubs get exposed in the presence of the players we have.

If you think of anymore players make a post and in about a week we can compile a best 11

[ThrylosG7]

Amorgos We need your input here pal

[Amorgos]

Haha ok my list is


Ninis
Koutsianikoulis
P Vlachodimos
Petsos
Harris Pappas - what ever happened to this guy!
Makos - horrid player!
Lagos
Pliatsikas
Iliadis
Leontiou
Dimoutsos - there is a clip of him playing at U21 and looking like the next Ronaldo... can’t believe he never lived up to anything
Mavrias
Maladenis
Tatos
Tavlaridis
Diamantakos
Vellios
Spanoudakis - do you remember the hype on this kid in the gs.com days

That’s what comes to mind for now

[Don Giovanni]

For me, it's just Ninis and Fetfatzidis. The rest of the names listed were never exceptional players, but they certainly had prospect with the Greek national team being that many were progressing through at the youth levels.

Fetfatzidis' immense talent and potential, as well as his limitations, were obvious in the few minutes he played against Bosnia yesterday. I say potential because he still requires refinement and at his age it's fair to wonder if his ship has sailed. Ninis, through a combination of injuries, physical limitations, and poor transfer decisions, failed to live up to his hype. But at 19 years old, he was at the same level Fortounis was at 24. At 17, he was better than a 19 year old Ozil. As far as teenage sensations go in Greece, none have come bigger than Ninis did and at the time of his breakthrough, the hype was real: we saw it against Roma and we saw it as he inspired Panathinaikos to win their first league title in 6 years. That was as good as it got for him unfortunately.

[ThrylosG7]

Don Giovanni

They are by far the most talented - and the rest are average at best i agree - but this is a list of Hyped up talents that never lived up to it. Now i dont know how old you are but 10 years ago for Fetfa and about 12 to 13 years ago for Ninis - the media hype in Greece and on football forums for these guys was ridiculous totally out of proportion to what was happening on the field. Ninis played a handful of good games and one outstanding game in the CL against Roma - he was being hailed as the new Saravakos however he was never stand out player at Pao on a regular basis - he was decent but not great by any stretch.

Fetfa His early career at Olympiacos was blighted by struggling tactically - Valverde had said that he needs to follow instructions better . His handful of flashes during the game did not justify his inclusion . Valverde had also said that with all that dribbling and skill there needs to be more end product - many times Fetfa would end up dribbling himself into a dead end ..
He showed some magic early in his career and the poor kid was the Greek Messi - after they took that title from Koutsianikoulis . Again the hype far outweighed what was happening on the pitch - Oly was getting hammered for not playing him but he just wasnt good enough - all people saw was the dribbles flicks and tricks - because it had been a long time since we saw a Greek player play like that unfortunately there was little substance or tactical discipline to his game .



Thats why these 2 guys are on the list

Haha ok my list is


Ninis
Koutsianikoulis
P Vlachodimos
Petsos
Harris Pappas - what ever happened to this guy!
Makos - horrid player!
Lagos
Pliatsikas
Iliadis
Leontiou
Dimoutsos - there is a clip of him playing at U21 and looking like the next Ronaldo... can’t believe he never lived up to anything
Mavrias
Maladenis
Tatos
Tavlaridis
Diamantakos
Vellios
Spanoudakis - do you remember the hype on this kid in the gs.com days

That’s what comes to mind for now

Spanoudakis - yes dear god....and Diamantakos who scored some goals in the Youth CL , BTW I just found out that Panos Armenakas is on the Pao roster wtf ?? lol

Armenakas , Filipakos and Bouzanis deserve honorary places on the list lol

[Reaper]

Yes they are probably the best players on the list - and the rest - we know were average at best - thats the idea though - putting together an overhyped Greek 11 - Fetfa and Ninis deserve to be on the list because they hype around them was far greater than any of the other players and for much longer - and its fair to say they never came close to that hype ..hence their place on the list...

I think you have to differentiate between GS.com hype and Greek media hype. The Greek media hype was big on Ninis, but not on Fetfa in my opinion. Chris from GS.com was the biggest Fetfa backer on earth. He was there first. The Greek media was never sold on Fetfa - and Greek fans were not sold on either. Greek media imo doesn't really hype particular players, it more often defends shit players. For example after each game Stafylidis cost the Greek NT, you would usually get one or two apologists pieces (Sport24 or SportFM) saying the problems can't be blamed on him because of XYZ. The same protection is extended to certain coaches like Skibbe, Ouzounidis, Ivic, Anastasiou, Donis etc and again, same apologist stuff sounding off 'What difference can they really make..' Also, the hype has not been big enough for other coaches like Lemonis and Tsiolis who imo were both good enough to coach abroad.

[Amorgos]

Don Giovanni
BTW I just found out that Panos Armenakas is on the Pao roster wtf ?? lol

Armenakas , Filipakos and Bouzanis deserve honorary places on the list lol

He is but it hasn’t worked and even with this weak PAO team he couldn’t make the bench so my sources tell me is gona get released soon and try his luck in England.

Who is Filipakos?

[LoneHorseman]

Lol, a graveyard of eternal talents, names that were my favorites that never panned out , at least to the heights I and other greek soccer fans hoped for.Let me add a couple of more names, Savvas Gentsoglou, tall, strong CM with surprisingly good vision with the ability to transition from offense to defense at a pretty good pace. Another one was Giorgos Georgiadis, great with both feet, made great runs on either side of midfield and was instrumental in taking out Harry Redknapp's Spurs at White Hart Lane a decade or so ago when he was playing for PAOK. And wasn't Filipakos that Greek American kid who was supposed to be the next big thing at LB for the gavroi???

[Greekfreak]

Poor Pliatsikas had one outstanding game in a WC playoff--as a makeshift RB if I recall correctly--and we were all ready to proclaim him the next Roberto Carlos.

For me there's only two players that really deserve mentioning--that is Fetfa and Ninis--particularly the latter, as big talents that were supposed to be the next Messi. It wasn't their fault that the standard of journalism was so poor.

[ThrylosG7]

He is but it hasn’t worked and even with this weak PAO team he couldn’t make the bench so my sources tell me is gona get released soon and try his luck in England.

Who is Filipakos?

As LoneHorseman correctly identified Filipakos was indeed the Greek American who came and went in a flash was quickly labelled the next Giannakopoulos - His hype came from the fact that he had a pretty good college career

Gentsoglou and Georgiadis is also a great shout lol

As for Armenakas when that kid was still only 10 his father was Australia's version of Lavar Ball lol he was on TV and in the papers talking his son up about who he had trialled with who he will play for etc...and he would upload videos of his son doing tricks and scoring goals ..he was loving the attention.

[Dean97]

I don’t know if he had so much hype but Giorgos Fotakis was a good player. CM with a great shot and great vision. Should’ve played more NT games...

[Reaper]

I don’t know if he had so much hype but Giorgos Fotakis was a good player. CM with a great shot and great vision. Should’ve played more NT games...

Yes, Fotakis if anything was underrated.
Also liked Mendrinos.

[Dean97]

I also thought Petsos was underrated. Should have given him a chance as well. We’ve have actually had great midfielders who never got a proper chance to shine. Instead we still relied on Karagounis, Katsouranis, Tziolis and at times Makos who I never rated. Maniatis was great for running like Zeca is now. But not for distributing or creating goals. Fotakis, Petsos, Gentsoglou and now Galanopoulos are more capable of creating goals because they are more rounded midfielders. Unlike players like Tziolis or Zeca.

Kourbelis is an upgrade from Tziolis and looks more capable than Samaris now. Bouchalakis is capable of being our best all round midfielder thats only if he steps up and takes more control in attack.

By the way Fotakis is still playing at the age of 37 for Panachaiki in the 2nd division.

Don’t know much about Mendrinos, I have to look him up.