5 At-Risk Players Who Should Stay at PAO

If you haven’t already read my post from December 26 titled “Who’s Out at Panathinaikos Under New Coach Fatih Terim?”, I would recommend doing so before giving this a read. In that blog post I looked at which Panathinaikos players are possible departures following the coaching change that happened in the club. In what follows, I will discuss five players who may be at-risk of leaving the club under new coach Fatih Terim, but ultimately, I think should stay.

AT-RISK PLAYERS I THINK SHOULD STAY: Cerin, Djuricic, Mancini, Palacios, Jeremejeff

It’s true that Cerin has had his ups and downs with the Greens and hasn’t necessarily blown many away. Despite that, he has seen the largest share of playing time in the number “8” position compared to his competitors up until Jovanovic’s dismissal. At this point, it’s hard to tell how much reshuffling Terim will do to the personnel in the middle of the field, but if he chooses to make radical changes, Cerin along with some others in that position could be for sale. However, Cerin is currently one of our most valuable assets according to Transfermarkt. Some may think that’s a reason to sell him now. But he also is one of our younger first-team players at 24 years old. He hasn’t hit his prime and still has room to grow, and his market value could easily double after one really good season. It’s worth noting that this is a player who features consistently for his national team also, earning significant minutes while helping Slovenia qualify for Euro 2024. He could have a breakthrough tournament at Euro 2024 and his value could skyrocket as a result, but if that doesn’t happen, I wouldn’t panic and cut him loose. He’s a low risk, high reward scenario. He’s on a long-term deal with us and is on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of salary. At the bare minimum, he’s good depth. The upside, however, is his value could quickly increase substantially resulting in a good payday for PAO and I hope he sticks around and proves himself to Terim.

 

Djuricic is not someone I would’ve included in this list a week ago. Even his recent dip in form doesn’t warrant him to be at-risk in my opinion. Djuricic is still a good player and he came to us with a lot of hype surrounding his transfer, having a respectable career in Italy before coming to Greece. He showed his talent early in the season and was quickly becoming a fan favorite with his strong European qualifying campaign. But the recent rumors of Tasos Bakasetas potentially coming to club makes me wonder. Don’t get me wrong, I think “Baka” would be a good signing for us. Baka and Djuricic are very similar players: attacking midfielders and classic number “10s”. Both also have the ability to play on the wing, if needed, but isn’t their preferred position. At first thought it may be difficult to imagine a starting XI where they both feature in the midfield due to their positional overlap. This might’ve been true in Jovanovic’s Panathinaikos, where typically we’d see a 4-2-3-1 with one CAM. Terim, however, is said to be very attacking minded and favor a 4-1-4-1. Given this information, it’s not out of the question to see both Djuricic and Bakasetas play together in that formation, with both taking on attacking midfield duties while one of them sits slightly behind the other. I reckon Bakasetas would be the likelier candidate to sit further back. We’ve seen him play a little deeper with the Ethniki and although, when this happened, it was mainly to fill a positional gap at the time, he showed he could handle it despite his traditional number “10” attributes. I think there is space for both Djuricic and Bakasetas not only in the PAO squad, but even in the same starting XI for these reasons. In the event the Bakasetas rumors don’t manifest, Djuricic’s time at PAO is less at risk for sure.

Mancini hasn’t gotten the game time I think he deserves. Perhaps Jovanovic didn’t particularly love him, which is odd because he was in fact a Jova signing (albeit a rushed one). I do think he was a positive signing. He was influential in the second half of the 2022-23 season and is lively and always seems to have a positive effect on the team in the games he comes on as a sub this season. Mancini, who is below the average age of the squad at 27 years old, should stay. At the very least he’s a solid depth piece as we’ve primarily seen him in 2023-24, but I would expect him to impress Terim and be in the conversation for significant playing time on the wings and potentially a starting role (at least while Aitor takes more time to reacclimate himself).

 

Sebastian “Tucu” Palacios has been perhaps our most consistent player this season. Surely one of the first names on the team sheet each week, he has rebounded well from a low-key 2022-23.

When originally writing this, I had Palacios as an at-risk player. I posited that despite his age, new coach, and contract expiring this summer, we should still look to renew his contract on a short-term basis (1 year or 1+1 option). At the time of posting this blog, Dimitris Limnios has been added to the team, who is also a winger, specifically RW like Palacios, and is younger and Greek, potentially further complicating things for the Argentine. On top of that, Palacios picked up an untimely injury this January, which coupled with his age, could be concerning. Limnios himself is coming off a long-term injury and no one knows if he’ll recapture his old form or if he’ll be able to stay fully fit consistently. For this reason, wing depth is necessary (we don’t want to have a situation like when Aitor went down long-term in 2022-23). I’m not saying the question marks surrounding Limnios point necessarily to a Palacios renewal, but it’s possible. In a wing position filled with Palacios, Aitor, Mancini, Verbic, and now Limnios, Palacios has been the most consistent performance-wise and fitness-wise (maybe second only to Mancini in fitness). I don’t think the fans should take this for granted, and neither should whoever is calling the shots at the club (whether that be Terim or someone else). If there is a significantly cheaper, younger option with quality that can be added to the wing depth via transfer, then we can entertain that option. But if Palacios is willing to accept a shorter length contract like I mentioned (1-2 years) for a reasonable salary, I wouldn’t hesitate too much.

 

Finally, Alexander Jeremejeff. A player who hasn’t seen much gametime but has CAPITALIZED on his opportunities. Four goals in three games this season, all in 57 minutes of being on the pitch (note: as of the end of 2023; 2024 games not included)! This includes an equalizer at the death vs PAOK to salvage a point and a brace recently against Volos. The sample size with Panathinaikos is small but this is the same player who bagged 24 goals (in 31 apps) in all competitions for Swedish side Häcken a couple years ago. I’m not saying he’ll do that in Greece, but he’s forced himself into the striker conversation and has warranted more game time. I would like to see him get more chances and perhaps take over backup striker duties if Sporar leaves (something that may already be happening as he was picked to come off the bench vs Giannina as the theoretical #2 striker option over Sporar). The cherry on top is Jeremejeff is unsurprisingly one of our cheapest contracts at £234,000 yearly. Low risk, potentially high(er) reward. He should stay and get more looks.

- Alex (@alexcv08)