Lucescu was very overwhelmed by the night. He believed in the scraps he collected on the list…

I didn’t even believe that there was one more player in PAOK this year, who was unarmed, detached and “small”. It made him able not to score and find a way to concede a goal again, so the natural and expected defeat of the clearly superior AEK turned into a shameful defeat by the opponent who had to play 10 to 11 throughout the match. Not only did this happen, but PAOK managed to concede two goals, thus forcing his fans to experience utter debauchery.

The big problem with this year’s PAOK was the weak roster, but also the fact that its staff could not and did not want to be aware of the real dynamics and the real quality of the team. They fly in the clouds with a string of good results and in failures they find a bunch of stupid excuses. When you don’t understand who you really are, you can’t get better. When you live with illusions, it is impossible to be happy in real life.

The first and … the culprit of the absolute zero tally of the season is Lucescu. Not for the nonsense written after painful defeats and written right and left now for the cup final, but for one reason only, very specific. For the mediocre and incoherent team he built last summer. A team that showed from the start, with Levski Sofias excluded, that they couldn’t. A team that has, along the way, wonderfully revealed its nakedness in both its main body and deep in its roster. A team that was doomed and had already failed miserably on all three fronts.

Please note: PAOK in the 2019 double only had to face Olympiacos. AEK and Panathinaikos were not there. To beat Olympiacos in the championship and defeat AEK in the cup final, he had to have: full backs Matos and Ferinas, still in the dozens. Stopper Varela and Crespo, who are rightfully called the best pair of central defenders. Sixes and eights in midfielders Mauricio, Cañas, Shahov, who ate iron. Midfielders Bisisvar, Kaduri, who are not yet veterans, and Belka. Laprigović, Akpom, Swinderski…

This year PAOK had with rivals not only Olympiacos, but also AEK and Panathinaikos, respectively: Sastre – Rafa Soares (with veteran Vierinia), Ingason – Koulierakis (without any reliable replacement in stoppers), Dandas – Schwab – Augusto (with Kurtic ) out of commission), Tyson-Constantilia (with veterans Bisisvar and Alkaduri) and Oliveira-Thomas. Really, what do you compare? How was it possible to expect glory and greatness from this team?

With Kotarski, with Ingason, with Zivkovic (who also gave a little this year), with Narei, with two young children, Konstantelias and Koulierakis, not to mention the veteran Tyson, who gave something Lucescu imagined he would win … at least second place, as he asked his players? It was very deep at night. That is why he did not declare from the very beginning that one should not expect trophies and titles in this season. He eventually begins to spoil it when he also realizes that… lads can’t do that and when he realizes that half of his list has no help whatsoever.

PS Now the Romanian wants to justify himself and console himself by saying that this year was … a normal transitional season. What will be next? It is clearly not temporary. Therefore, if he is interested in leading PAOK back to the top, there is only one way: outside the list there is a lot of rubbish, inside there are many great players …