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Going into the seventeenth round of fixtures in the Torneo Apertura, here's a brief rundown of what's been going on off the pitch in the last few days. Estudiantes, of course, leave for the UAE to take part in the Club World Cup this weekend, and they played their final domestic match of the year [..

He's out. One of our great hopes of last season, now just disappointingly regarded as an overpriced back-up. This comes as no surprise. With last week's signing of Juanfran, we all saw this coming. His wage bill was simply too high for a second string left back at a team with our limited budget. It's [.

Well, we got a new left back.  Details here. From the sounds of it, Juanfran will be our first choice left back, which means Arruarbarrena's days are numbered (since a team like AEK can't afford 800,000 a year for a back-up left back).

The Summer transfer window is not nearly closed yet, so a good bit more will likely happen. I hope so anyway. We still have some serious holes to fill. But things have slowed to such a point that there is little to write about or even link to. Saja is supposed to officially sign today, [...]

Kostenoglou will be taking his usual squad with him to the Appostolos Nikolaidis stadium. The squad will include Macho, Moretto, Dellas, Bourbos, Arruabarrena, Papastathopoulos, Pliatsikas, Geraldo Alves, Edson Silva Ramos, Kone, Julio Cezar, Liberopoulos, and Blanco. Georgeas and Manduca are still not 100 percent ready.

We lined up like this: Lyberopoulos Blanco Rivaldo Edinho Toszer -Kafes Bourbos -Pilatsikas Alves -Dellas Macho And everyone played well, even Pilatsikas who is arguably a class below the rest of the team (though steadily improving as he gets more first team experience).  At the start of the second half, Kallon subbed in for Lyberopoulos; in the 59th minute, Ramos Silva went in for Edinho; and in [.

How many days late with this am I? I guess just two. We played Xanthi Wednesday, lined up like this: Kallon Blanco Rivaldo Lagos Edinho Kafes Bourbos Pliatsikas Papastathopoulos Dellas Macho And though we didn't completely dominate the entire match, we played a better brand of football overall.

Everybody tied this weekend, AEK and Panathinaikos with each other and Olympiacos with a ten-man Asteras Tripolis.Given all the turmoil that has attended our club lately (the sacking of Ferrer, Kostenoglou testing out different line-ups and formations), this was a good result for us. We played decent football.

Well, the game is underway and we lined up like this: Moreto Nsaliwa Dellas Papastathopoulos Arruabarrena Zikos Kafes Ramos -Rivaldo Lagos Kallon Which is pretty close to what I predicted in my preview piece yesterday except Kostenoglou has gone with two defensive mids and one striker where I would have put one defensive mid and two strikers.

After a weekend off due to a freak snow storm, AEK travels to Spain tomorrow to play the second leg of our UEFA Cup fixture against Getafe. Getafe's Cosmin Contra is predicting a win for his side. AEK, for their part, will be playing just their second match under caretaker manager Nikos Kostenoglou, a former AEK player and, until [.

Well, we are a full week into AEK Athens FC A.F. (After Ferrer) and still no replacement in sight. Persistent rumors link us to Angelos Anastasiadis and, even less believably, Didier Deschamps. It looks to me though that Nikos Kostenoglou, former AEK player, former Ferrer assistant, will continue in the capacity of caretaker manager for the [.

Jaime Gavilan, Getafe's star midfielder, is just happy to be alive after the violent (though unintentional) hit he took from AEK's Arruabarrena during Wednesday's UEFA Cup match. It appears Gavilan will not be available to play for Getafe against AEK during the return fixture on February 21. More press reports here, here and here on Wednesday's [.

After multiple requests, here ya go: Arruabarrena to Kallon to Blanco for the equalizer. Good stuff. There's hope for us yet.

We play Larissa F.C. tomorrow, Saturday, February 9th, at 9:45 am East Coast Time. I am very nervous about this match, for the following reasons. First, Larissa are no push-overs. They won the Greek Cup last year and had a okay run in this year's UEFA Cup, defeating Blackburn of the EPL in the first round before losing [.

Remember that ball-winning, holding midfielder I said we needed to pick up this transfer window? Well, we already have him. Nice to meet you Mr. Nsaliwa. Where ya been? Nsaliwa was in rare form today. He read plays well, anticipated where the ball was going, dispossessed Atromitos in the midfield repeatedly, and broke free of tackles [.

Last time we played we beat Atromitos 2-0. That was at home and we were at full strength. Now we play them away and without Blanco, Dellas and probably Papastathopoulos. Ferrer has not been consistent with his line-ups when missing key players, so I can't predict how he will line up. Instead, I will give [.

It proves nothing; you know that, right? Veria F.C. was crap. We played well, but not well enough to draw any major conclusions. Still, there were a few surprises that make me truly hopeful about the second half of the season. The first is that Pappas had his first start of the Greek League with AEK.

That seems to be the question on fans' minds these days. And there is no simple answer.  A quick look at the transfer market helps illustrate this question. Panathinaikos, for example, made several multi-million dollar signings in the Summer such as star midfielder Marcelo Mattos and are now bolstering their squad even further with the likes of [.

This morning I looked back at my post from yesterday and realized something: there were fewer details from the game than in my usual posts. When I watched the game on Sunday I did not take notes as I normally do. I just watched the game. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps I was a bit hung [...]

MADRID, Spain — Veteran Spanish international Marcos Senna celebrated becoming Villarreal's all-time record league appearance holder with a fine opening goal as his side won 3-0 at 10-man Real Zaragoza on Saturday to close to within five points of league leaders Real Madrid. The 34-year-old Senna, a Euro 2008 winner with Spain, made his 220th [.