Yannis Alafouzos: He made Panathinaikos the center of passing coaches – In 11 months he has changed 5 technicians –

On December 26, 2023 PAE Panathinaikos announced the completion of its cooperation with the coach Ivan Jovanovicwhile on October 30, 2024 the “greens” signed an agreement with Rui Vitoria. In a period of 310 days the “clover” was removed and brought to his bench five coaches (!), a sample of the failure of Yannis Alafouzou who does not learn from his mistakes, as a result of which the historic team has not won the championship for 14 years!

Five coaches in eleven months don’t even change amateur clubs. Panathinaikos, after closing the circle with a Serbian coach, collaborated with a Turk, a Greek, a Uruguayan and today in Volos they will be coached by a Portuguese! Absolute insanity. Alafouzou’s tactic at Panathinaikos is “whatever it takes”, even though he has spent more than 150 million euros as a major shareholder of the green PAE in the last 12-13 years.

The fortunes of Panathinaikos after Jovanovich were taken over by Fatih Term which failed miserably and was sacked before the end of last season on May 17th in particular. He was succeeded by Jovanovic’s assistant, Christos Kontis, who guided the “greens” in two matches: in the playoff derby with Olympiakos (2-2) and in the final of the Cup with Aris, in which Panathinaikos won the trophy winning 1-0.

Another philosophy

The next one to parade at “Georgios Kalafatis”, the training center of the “trefoil” in Koropi, was Diego Alonso. G. Alafuzos wanted to bring the Italian Maurizio Sarri, he refused and the ball sat in the name of the Uruguayan coach. Panathinaikos has the most complete and most expensive roster in its history, but Alonso has failed to give the team a footballing identity. The 49-year-old coach leaves the “clover” at -5 from the top, but follows a passable schedule until the end of the first round with opponents Volos (out), Lamia (in), Panaitolikos (out) and Atromitos (in) ). But there is also a problem. What is this? The model of play advocated by Rui Vitoria has nothing to do with what Alonso sought to establish. The Portuguese coach wants his team to have possession of the ball and,,, build the attacks every pass with transfers worked on every day in training. While Alonso’s Panathinaikos often played with direct attacks, from the goalkeeper and central defenders to the forwards to surprise the opposing defence. Therefore, in order to lift their heads (competitively) the “greens” will have to quickly digest the plans of their new coach, who has worked among other teams at Benfica, Al Nasr, Spartak Moscow and the Egyptian national team.

In the event that the players of the “clover” do not assimilate Vitoria’s plans, Alafouzos has the solution. He will also expel the Portuguese, bringing another coach in his place with a different philosophy in his game and thus the “green” achtarmas will have continuity. Besides, the owner of PAE Panathinaikos is used to spending a lot of money without bringing the coveted championship title to the club.

Without beginning and end

When G. Alafouzos took over Panathinaikos, he found him on the bench Gesualdo Ferreira. From then until his arrival, Jovanovic worked with the following coaches: Rocha (14/11/2012 – 7/1/2013), Fabri Gonzales (8/1/2023- 30/3/2013), Yannis Vonortas (31/3/2013- 9/5/2013), Yannis Anastasiou (1/6/20131/11/2015), Stiv Router (2/11/2015 – 14/11/2015), Andrea Stramaccioni (15/11/2015 – 1/12/2016), Marino Ouzounidis (1/12/2016 – 31/5/2018), George Doni (1/6/2018 – 19/7/2020), Danny Pogiatos (21/7/2020 – 18/10/2020), Sotiri Sylaidopoulos (13/10/2020- 18/10/20), Laszlo Bologna (19/10/2020 – 11/5/2021) again Sotiri Silaidopoulos (12/5/2021 – 16/5/2021). Then he took over Jovanovic that put the team on a championship course, but Alafouzos fired him completely unnecessarily last December. And within one quarter, Panathinaikos went from being a model team, to becoming a team without a beginning and an end to its game.

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Volos – Panathinaikos 0-1: The greens played with fire, but won

Rui Vitoria: “We are not cheap sellers of dreams, if I were I would say I came here and we will win the championship”