Angelos Charisteas

[Kowalczyk]

He's doing work as a 'peacekeeper'....

Check this:
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=39480

Aveslacker, did you see it...? And is there somesort of special rivalry between Greece and Albania? I knew about Greece and Turkey, but Albania...?

K.

[Mr. Ajax]

Just a few days ago my Greek friend of mine was explaining to me about the Albanian muslims in Greece...Not everyone is quite as happy with them, but i don't think he mentioned intense rivalry...

[aveslacker]

He's doing work as a 'peacekeeper'....

Check this:
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=39480

Aveslacker, did you see it...? And is there somesort of special rivalry between Greece and Albania? I knew about Greece and Turkey, but Albania...?

K.

I'm heartened that EPO is being proactive here. The rivalry between Greece and Albania is quite different from that which exists between Greece and Turkey. Greece and Turkey act a lot like adolescent children towards one another -- imagine a 15 year old boy (Turkey) and his 13 year old sister (Greece) in the backseat of a car on a 5 hour road trip. Also, the Greeks are still mindful of centuries of Ottoman occupation, and while relations between the two are improving, a football pitch is usually the last place you notice these things.

With respect to Albania, the rivalry is different. There are hundreds of thousands of Albanians living/working in Greece -- estimates go as high as ten percent of the total population -- many (probably most) of them working illegaly. Some of them are muslim, but most of them are orthodox christians, just like the Greeks. Many of them are ethnic Greeks who happened to grow up on the wrong side of the border under the Maoist Hoxha regime. The Albanians suffer from the standard things immigrant communities suffer -- blamed for taking jobs (albeit jobs that Greeks don't want), rising crime rates (although I'm not convinced the crime rate is actually rising here -- this is possibly the safest country in Europe IMO), etc.

There have been allegations that Albanians are involved in organized crime in Greece, particularly drug- and human- smuggling (which is true). It is also true that Albanians are disproportionately represented in Greek jails. (A sad but interesting note - the guy mentioned in the article who stabbed the Albanian in Zakynthos is under 24 hour guard in prison because there are so many Albanians in jail here.)

In short, Greeks resent Albanian immigrants in Greece, and Albanians resent Greece as the prosperous country next door that arrogantly disregards its neighbor. Something like that. So while the rivalry doesn't have the sting of millenia of animosity a la Greece-Turkey, in some ways it is more biting here because the issues are relatively fresh (all of this has happened in the last 10-15 years).

Hope this explains some of it. :xyxthumbs:

[Kowalczyk]

Wow... What a situation. Didn't know anything about that. Thanks for your lecture.

:xyxthumbs:

I do know that Albania is the poorest country in Europe today. Pretty much bankrupt. And I also know that there's something weird going on in the countries of the European Union. Apparently the same thing is happening in Greece as in Holland: 2004 was the third straight year in which the crime rates dropped significantly - and the police booked better results. Holland has become a safer place in recent years (the major cities, in particular). If you want to notice this, you actually will.

But at the same time people are complaining about crime and their feeling of 'unsafety' more than ever. Over here this obviously has to do with the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh in recent years. Both seemed to confirm what people feared: namely that something is going terribly wrong with the 'integration' of muslims in Holland (Fortuyn was not murdered by a muslim, but had a very prominent place in the 'New Type of Public Discussion' about them). The total number of homicides went down in Holland, but these two had such an enormous media appeal and caused such an enormous stir, that people are basically believing that things get worse and worse...

In my opinion, the biggest problem we're facing in Europe at the moment is the mindset of the people. Not the worrying facts as such.

Off-topic stuff... I know. Aveslacker: did you actually see the Charisteas ad on TV? He's a bit of a Mr. Bean type guy (just like Shota Arveladze in the past), so I was just wondering...

K.

[Frans]

I don't know what it is with Albanians, but I know a Macedonian guy who hates them, and weren't they involved in that whole Kosovo mess? Not the most popular people down in that corner of europe, I think.

[aveslacker]

Ko-

I haven't seen the commercial yet, but I'll probably catch it tonite, since I'm probably going to watch the first half of the Greece-Albania qualifier.

Off-topic:

There are other reasons why Albanians are disliked in this corner of the world, and part of it does have to do with religion, since there are quite a few muslim albanians, although they are muslims in name only. Also, there are ethnic Albanians in Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Macedonia, in particular, had the potential to further "balkanize" i.e. devolve into further ethnic strife, but that trend has been reversed of late. But based on the age-old ethnic hatreds in the balkans, I can see (although not condone) why an ethnic Macedonian would dislike an ethnic Albanian.

On-topic: I hope he does well tonight, and have still not lost hope that he grows into his role with Ajax.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Well what do you know... our greek friend scored for his country.Hope he starts scoring for ajax.

[Kowalczyk]

Well what do you know... our greek friend scored for his country.Hope he starts scoring for Ajax.

Yeah. I think he had two really promising first games (at Utrecht and at home to Heerenveen for the cup). Then he had four extremely poor ones. The last one or two were better, although not as good as the first ones.

But he really has to start scoring now... Blind did not buy him and will not feel as much of an allegiance to him as Koeman. He will have to start doing the business now, or he may be out (I have to add that it's very hard for an Ajax striker these days, because there is no proper support: not a single good cross from the flanks in many games...).

K.

[Philippe]

Don't get too excited : he scored against ... Albania

[aveslacker]

Don't get too excited : he scored against ... Albania

Which beat Greece 2-1 the last time they played. :D

[Per]

Don't get too excited : he scored against ... Albania

Which in all fairness should be about as hard as to score against at least half of the Eredivisie sides! You do the maths, Angelos should chip in regularly.

Btw (being away for so long) how many did he score so far?

[Blind3]

I'd welcome any offensive contributions.Overall, I'm board as hell with Anti-Ajax.I had more fun watching Killer Whales in Puget Sound recently than watching Ajax. Wake me when they start playing like the team I used to know.

[Kowalczyk]

But he really has to start scoring now...

Well, alright then.

By the way: the injury he picked up against Heerenveen (muscular injury) is reportedly not too serious. He will miss Thursday's home game against Willem II, but is expected to be fit for Sunday (AZ).

K.

[LucaS]

Don't get too excited : he scored against ... Albania

Which in all fairness should be about as hard as to score against at least half of the Eredivisie sides! You do the maths, Angelos should chip in regularly.

Btw (being away for so long) how many did he score so far?

Twice in the competition, once in the AC

[Kowalczyk]

Twice in the competition, once in the AC

To be precise:

* 2 goals (one against amateur club Spakenburg and one against Ajax Cape Town) in three friendly games (158 minutes of action in total).

* 2 goals (one at Roda JC and one at Heerenveen) in eight Eredivisie games (632 minutes of action in total).

* 1 goal (against Heerenveen) in two Amstel Cup matches (169 minutes of action in total).

Okay, now let's forget about those friendlies: if you don't count the friendlies he scored three goals in 801 minutes of Ajax-1 action. That's one goal every 267 minutes, which means he scores almost exactly once in every three games (= 270 minutes) so far.

1-in-3 is not a terrible or hopeless average, but it's a bit low for a striker and it will definitely have to improve. Ryan Babel, for example, had 624 minutes of first team action in the Eredivisie and the Amstel Cup this season. He scored six times (that's once every 104 minutes).

K.

[Blind3]

And in true Ajax fashion,I hear he's now hurt. X'C

Is this so?

[Daily Blind]

Yes he is :cheer:

[Kowalczyk]

Yes he is :cheer:

Now what sense does that make...?

As if we've seen anything special from Ryan Babel (or anyone else) in the past couple of games... Charisteas scored in a very tough away game. Which means he did the business. More than the ten others on the team could say...

K.

[Daily Blind]

Only one good touch against a team, who's missing 4 important players, don't makes him good.

[LucaS]

and we enjoy the injuries of the players of the team we support if we don't think they are very good. Let me tell you this, Ibrahimovic was utter f*cking sh*te (to quote a famous At-ist) in his first season with Ajax

[Kowalczyk]

Only one good touch against a team, who's missing 4 important players, don't makes him good.

One goal every game does make him good, actually. He's a striker. He can stand there like a friggin' statue for 89 minutes, for all I care. As long as he does the job when he gets his chance. One chance and BANG! - goal. I wish we had a 25-goals-or-more-striker like that.

And yes, I know that Charisteas is not a 'one-chance-one-goal' type of striker, but in this game he did the business. He was one of the very few Ajax players on the night who actually did what they're paid for.

I agree with Lucas, by the way: do you have a clue what you're doing here...? You're cheering because an Ajax player is injured...? What kind of a supporter does that make you? I can't believe it.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Okay.

I was in touch with a guy I know today, who is a sports journalist (I won't give him away, but he's not working for the same paper as me). The insiders' rumour: Blind thinks Charisteas is shit - and he wants to try and sell him in the summer. Perfect. We just bought the bloke...

Also (a few more thingies he told me): Blind is really impressed with Grygera and Escudé. They are his central defense duo for next season. He wants to give Heitinga a shot a right fullback and really wants De Jong to stay. If he does, right midfield will be his.

De Jong and Pienaar (who are good mates and very close) are basically waiting for each other to take a decision. If one of 'em signs a new deal the other one will probably stay also. Worst case scenario (but not at all unlikely) is that they both go. One reassuring thought: they won't go to PSV.

Don't know if it's true; just passing it on.

What I do know is this: we need a PLAN next season (we didn't have one in the past two seasons), cos we look like a bunch of clowns.

K.

[Arthur]

I wish we had a 25-goals-or-more-striker like that.

Yes, just look at Feyenoord how much success a top goalscorer brings ;)

But really, as long as the team scores I couldn't care less if the striker is a topscorer or not. In fact, I'd rather have a team player there who let's the whole squad play well instead of a lazy bum who hangs around waiting for goals.

Some more examples of how little it matters to have a topscorer:
- Ronaldo has only ever won one league title with his many clubs, despite being topscorer most of the time.
- Hasselbainks Atletico Madrd relegated even though he was topscorer of the Spanish league

[Kowalczyk]

Point taken. In 2002-2003 Ajax had many players who scored 5 to 8 goals. Which is great. But this season we just don't score enough goals, simple as that. Less than two on average in home games!

K.

[carcajou]

Okay.
[...]
Don't know if it's true; just passing it on.

What I do know is this: we need a PLAN next season (we didn't have one in the past two seasons), cos we look like a bunch of clowns.

K.

LOVE those rumors from the inside, try to keep em coming, because this is what I'm lacking (and the same goes for all of us foreigners) :

The squad-breathing, the general feeling, the Vlamse Friet / Hot Dog smell, this hapiness you have after a joyful training session, the yells in metro 54...