GreeksBearingGifts
Stuart Pearce
So far, the movement of players between the two clubs has been relatively limited, did not involve a lot of money and mostly conformed to three scenarios: a) players that needed to be moved out of one club and thus went to the other, where they might fit in better, (with or without the added parameter of ‘creative accounting’); b) players not very much needed in one club but certainly not crap, for whom someone thought that they might make it to the other (usually with no money involved); c) youngsters from our U19 team to your U23 (none made it over there).
A list (counting only from the official start of the EM era and not including the youngsters, where the flow was always from us to you):
- Andreas Bouchalakis (2017/8, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): scenario b, no money involved. He returned to us (on a free) a year later, a much better player.
- Stefanos Kapino (2017/8, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): an exception; EM reportedly declared he never wanted to see him at Olympiacos again, and he came over to you on the last day of the transfer window. You made some money out of the deal though, since you sold him for a sum reportedly between 300 and 500k euros six months later.
- Panagiotis Tachtsidis (2018/9, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): scenario b, no money involved. You made some money out of the deal, since you sold him for 500k euros six months later.
- Karim Ansarifard (2018/9, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): between scenario a and a Kapino-like exception, since his agent screwed him over, promising until the final day of the transfer window that he would bring a great bid for Germany, and, accordingly, we bought other strikers although in reality we wanted him. The bid never came and the only choice was for him to come to you. Again, you made money out of the deal since you sold him for a handsome seven-figure sum to a Qatari team (reportedly 1,5m euros).
- El Arbi Hillel Soudani (2019/20, Forest to Olympiacos, for 3m euros, at least as far as the accounts are concerned): scenario a, with the added dimension of money (basically a cash injection for you in a difficult period). A very unlucky player, who could have great both for you and for us if not for his injuries.
- Gil Dias (2019/20, Forest to Olympiacos in a sense, since we facilitated the break of his loan from Monaco): scenario a, in my view you still owe us for this one.
- Cafú (2020/21, Olympiacos to Forest, first on loan and then on a free perm): scenario b. Paradoxically, the most successful transfer between the two sides.
- Miguel Ángel Guerrero (2020/21, Olympiacos to Forest on a free): scenario a. He came on a free, he left on a free six months later.
- Tiago Silva (2020/21, Forest to Olympiacos on a free): scenario b. He didn’t make it here.
- Mohamed Dräger (2021/2, Olympiacos to Forest on a free): scenario a. You loaned him out six months later; paradoxically, he’s doing great in Luzern, and might bring some money to one of the two clubs.
- João Carvalho (2021/2, Forest to Olympiacos, undisclosed sum): scenario b, with the added dimension of money. No one but Vrentzos will ever know the sum inscribed in the accounts for that transfer.
In general, although the majority of players was from here to there, both cases where money was involved was from there to here.
Obviously, your promotion changes things radically. I’ve been struggling to imagine what sort of flow there might be between the two clubs, but I fail to see plausible categories of transfer. One possible such category might be youngsters from your U23 who might profit from real European football if they are to have hopes of establishing themselves in the Premier, but I suspect you will prefer to loan such players out to a Championship club. In any such case, we would be doing you a favour, preparing a youngster for you. One other category might be players like our Mady Camara, where we are looking for sums that only Premier clubs would give. In such a case, it would mostly be a cash flow from there to here, now that you have the big bucks. A third possible category might be Premier rejects, players that you sign and don’t seem to fit in there. In such a case, probably both clubs would benefit equally from the transaction. But for different reasons, none of these categories seem very plausible to me.
We’ll see, I guess.
A list (counting only from the official start of the EM era and not including the youngsters, where the flow was always from us to you):
- Andreas Bouchalakis (2017/8, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): scenario b, no money involved. He returned to us (on a free) a year later, a much better player.
- Stefanos Kapino (2017/8, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): an exception; EM reportedly declared he never wanted to see him at Olympiacos again, and he came over to you on the last day of the transfer window. You made some money out of the deal though, since you sold him for a sum reportedly between 300 and 500k euros six months later.
- Panagiotis Tachtsidis (2018/9, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): scenario b, no money involved. You made some money out of the deal, since you sold him for 500k euros six months later.
- Karim Ansarifard (2018/9, Olympiacos to Forest, on a free): between scenario a and a Kapino-like exception, since his agent screwed him over, promising until the final day of the transfer window that he would bring a great bid for Germany, and, accordingly, we bought other strikers although in reality we wanted him. The bid never came and the only choice was for him to come to you. Again, you made money out of the deal since you sold him for a handsome seven-figure sum to a Qatari team (reportedly 1,5m euros).
- El Arbi Hillel Soudani (2019/20, Forest to Olympiacos, for 3m euros, at least as far as the accounts are concerned): scenario a, with the added dimension of money (basically a cash injection for you in a difficult period). A very unlucky player, who could have great both for you and for us if not for his injuries.
- Gil Dias (2019/20, Forest to Olympiacos in a sense, since we facilitated the break of his loan from Monaco): scenario a, in my view you still owe us for this one.
- Cafú (2020/21, Olympiacos to Forest, first on loan and then on a free perm): scenario b. Paradoxically, the most successful transfer between the two sides.
- Miguel Ángel Guerrero (2020/21, Olympiacos to Forest on a free): scenario a. He came on a free, he left on a free six months later.
- Tiago Silva (2020/21, Forest to Olympiacos on a free): scenario b. He didn’t make it here.
- Mohamed Dräger (2021/2, Olympiacos to Forest on a free): scenario a. You loaned him out six months later; paradoxically, he’s doing great in Luzern, and might bring some money to one of the two clubs.
- João Carvalho (2021/2, Forest to Olympiacos, undisclosed sum): scenario b, with the added dimension of money. No one but Vrentzos will ever know the sum inscribed in the accounts for that transfer.
In general, although the majority of players was from here to there, both cases where money was involved was from there to here.
Obviously, your promotion changes things radically. I’ve been struggling to imagine what sort of flow there might be between the two clubs, but I fail to see plausible categories of transfer. One possible such category might be youngsters from your U23 who might profit from real European football if they are to have hopes of establishing themselves in the Premier, but I suspect you will prefer to loan such players out to a Championship club. In any such case, we would be doing you a favour, preparing a youngster for you. One other category might be players like our Mady Camara, where we are looking for sums that only Premier clubs would give. In such a case, it would mostly be a cash flow from there to here, now that you have the big bucks. A third possible category might be Premier rejects, players that you sign and don’t seem to fit in there. In such a case, probably both clubs would benefit equally from the transaction. But for different reasons, none of these categories seem very plausible to me.
We’ll see, I guess.
