Olympiacos's Transfer Window: Success or Disappointment? | OneFootball

After Olympiacos announced the signing of Sergio Oliveira from Galatasaray, it all but concluded the transfer business of the summer. While the Greek League's transfer deadline is not until September 11th, Olympiacos made it clear that all signings needed to be done by the UEFA Europa League registration deadline on September 4th. The European list included 23 players in List A, which represented the preferred squad size for Coach Jose Luis Mendilibar. In List B, the academy products of the U19 UEFA Youth League winners that joined the first team for summer preseason.

You would think that following a season with 2 European titles(Conference League and Youth League) that the Red & White fanbase would be leaving the transfer window with excitement. The defending conference league champions, along with the most youth integrated into the first team in its recent history, are attempting surpass last season's exploits by pushing the limits in the Europa League. Well, where you would think there's excitement, you will actually find despair.

Following Sergio Oliveira's announcement, social media was polarized with extreme opinions on the transfer window. For some, the failure to retain former club captain Kostas Fortounis, star winger Daniel Podence, and creative midfielder Andre Horta could not be overshadowed by any new signings. Others, disappointed by the low number and lower than usual dollar amount spent, criticized lack of a transfer strategy or willingness to invest in our 100 year anniversary season. There are some who look at the overall summer window positively. Maybe they are not 100% in agreement with all of the transfers but they are in agreement with the manner of business that was done. So, today's exercise will be to actually evaluate the changes at each position and see where we stand. Comparison of Rosters

Let's look at each position where we ended the season, compared to where we are now.

Goalkeepers: UNCHANGED. Added Depth

During the course of last season the starting goalkeeper changed from Paschalakis to Tzolakis after Mendilibar's arrival. This season, the pecking order remains unchanged and we added Kifissia goalkeeper Anagnastopoulos as 3rd choice. Left Back: Minor Upgrade

23/24: Francisco Ortega, Omar Richards, Quini

24/25: Francisco Ortega, Apostolos Apostolopoulos

Francisco Ortega continues to be our starting LB. The only change has been the depth option. Instead of Forest loanee Omar Richards, we have 21 year old Apostolopoulos. Omar Richards is a more talented player, but he spent most of the year recovering from injury and reinjuring himself. Quini, our backup RB, played more at LB than Richards did. Apostolopoulos also held his own in the Conference League final. As long as he's healthy, this is an upgrade over Richards. Centerback: Upgrade

Start of 23/24: Panos Retsos, Nicolas Freire, Jackson Porozo, Andreas Ntoi, Giuliane Biancone

End of 23/24: Panos Retsos, David Carmo, Andreas Ntoi, Ruben Vezo, Giuliane Biancone

24/25: Panos Retsos, David Carmo, Lorenzo Pirola, Andreas Ntoi, Guiliane Biancone, Isidoros Koutsidis

The CB position was a disaster for us last season. While Panos Retsos was our core distributor out of the back a multitude of individual mistakes by him and Freire costed us in the Europa league group stage and the league. David Carmo would be one of the major assets that led us to a Conference League title. By retaining him and adding Italian U21 captain with 50 Serie A caps Lorenzo Pirola, not to mention our promising CB starlet Isidoros Koutsidis, we have upgraded CB in a big way.

Right Back: Upgrade

23/24: Rodinei, Quini

24/25: Rodinei, Costinha

Quini was there or us in good and bad times, but he was a limited footballer. Upgrading him with the best RB in Portuguese league last season is a clear upgrade for us. CM/AM: Upgrade

Start of 23/24: Santiago Hezze, Vicente Iborra, Mady Camara, Joao Carvalho, Gustavo Scarpo, Sotiris Alexandropoulos

End of 23/24: Santiago Hezze, Vicente Iborra, Andre Horta, Chiquinho, Joao Carvalho, Sotiris Alexandropoulos

24/25: Santiago Hezze, Marko Stamenic, Dani Garcia, Chiquinho, Sergio Oliveira, Andreas Ntoi, Theofanis Bakoulas, Christos Mouzakitis

Our midfield also went through some major changes during last season. 2 Midfielders were gone by midseason and replaced with creative midfielder Andre Horta and multifaceted Chiquinho. Additionally, veteran Vicente Iborra became an irreplaceable veteran presence in the final stages of the UECL knockout rounds. While we were unable to retain Andre Horta or Vicente Iborra, we brought in the likes of Marko Stamenic (DM), Dani Garcia(veteran DM), and Sergio Oliveira(CM). We also promoted our 2 promising midfield starlets from the U19 team while discovering incredible usefulness from Andreas Ntoi in the #6 while Dani Garcia and Stamenic sustained injuries in preseason.

Let's be honest with ourselves here, Joao Carvalho and Sotiris Alexandropoulos were not amazing footballers. The youth replacement alone is an upgrade over them. The discontent revolves primarily around the replacement choice for Iborra and Horta. For me, Iborra was only useful for about a month and a half of football. Until we made it to the latter stages he was never counted on and the club tried to force him out in January. He played a huge role in our winning the title, but he is going to end his career at Levante. Dani Garcia in the time he has played has looked just as solid in midfield. The only player we did not fully replace is Horta. Sergio Oliveira does not have Horta's creativity but offers us different attributes that no one else has while also maintaining the ability to play deep balls to our wingers. While I agree we miss Horta, we upgraded in depth and replacement of 2 otherwise average players.

Wingers: Less creativity, More Profile Diversity

Start of 23/24: Fortounis, Podence, Masouras, Pep Biel, Scarpa, Ola Solbakken

End of 23/24: Fortounis, Podence, Masouras, Jovane Cabral(only for Greece), Gelson Martins(injured, not on EU list)

24/25: Gelson Martins, Kristoffer Velde, Masouras, Willian

There's a small disclaimer here for Gelson Martins and Jovane Cabral, both of whom were brought in January 2024. Neither player was on our EU list and Gelson was injured for most of the spring. Effectively, we had 3 wingers in the spring of the 23/24 season. If we boil down most of the complaining about the transfer window, it revolves around Fortounis and Podence. While I agree that the losses of Fortounis and Podence are massive, there are some facts that many people seem to forget. Complaints around winger depth, potential goal contribution, and creativity are misguided.

First and foremost, if you are complaining about winger depth right now, where were you this past spring? We literally had only 3 options in our European list once Scarpa, Pep Biel, and Ola Solbakken were shipped out. There were entire matches where the fanbase would clamor for a sub only to remember that there were hardly any subs that could be made at that position. Kostas Fortounis had his best season of his career for us in terms of goal contribution. A small stat that people seem to pass over is that of his 30 goal contributions, only 8 of them were under Jose Luis Mendilibar. The vast majority of his production came under coach Diego Martinez. Since Mendilibar required Fortounis to do more work behind the ball, his offensive production faltered. Daniel Podence on the other hand exploded under Mendilibar. While everyone is panicking about replacing his production, they seem to ignore the incredible start of Gelson Martins. With 3 goal contributions in 3 matches( a goal involvement every 90 minutes), Gelson is already on pace to break Podence's goal involvement number assuming he stays healthy. The additions of Kristoffer Velde and Willian also give us completely different looks that can be used to break down defenses. While Fortounis's and Podence's creativity may not have been replicated exactly, we found a spread of attacking traits that give us a multi-faceted attack. The pitch will tell us if our entirety of changes can produce collectively what we lost with Fortounis and Podence.

Forwards: Upgrade

Start of 23/24- Ayoub El Kaabi, Youssef El Arabi, Stevan Jovetic

End of 23/24 - Ayoub El Kaabi, Youssef El Arabi, Stevan Jovetic, Fran Navarro

24/25 - Ayoub El Kaabi, Roman Yaremchuk, Charalambos Kostoulas(Babis)

Again, clear upgrades in the forward position. While we retained our record goal scorer El Kaabi we upgraded on the rest of the forwards with Roman Yaremchuk alone. Roman has looked great since joining and in only 35' of official football he already scored his first goal. While Youssef El Arabi is a legend, the game has passed him by and he's near retirement. Stevan Jovetic is a brilliant player with technique, but it took the arrival of Mendilibar to get any logical use out of him. Even that use was relatively limited. As for Fran Navarro, I won't comment on his utter uselessness. A proper backup with a different skillset in Yaremchuk and a third choice forward in our 17 year old prodigy Babis Kostoulas is the most sensible thing we've done at this position in years.

SUCCESS OR DISAPPOINTMENT?

I'm going to disagree with what feels like the majority of Olympiacos social media on this one. I have been plenty critical of the club over the past 2.5 seasons, but this summer I preferred the measured business that we did. I hated the summers of us bringing 12-20 players in one window and harboring confusion over the roles of certain players. This summer it was clear what we wanted and that we prioritized our renewals over new transfers. When we failed to get our preferred renewals, we consulted different options. I doubt that we picked our first choice with respect to Sergio Oliveira but I understand the reason for his signing.

In the end, while I contest that we may not have directly upgraded at the winger position we upgraded at every other position except goalkeeper. For me, this represents a success in terms of the overall market even though we lost 2 important pieces in Fortounis and Podence. While I doubt any 2 players can replace their goal contributions, I do believe that the entirety of our offensive unit can find ways to produce at least the same level of team goals as last season.