Loutsescu: “My relations with Savvidis are excellent, we are wronged by the Athenian teams”

The coach of PAOK gave an interview to the Turkish newspaper Fanatik, Razvan Lucescu. The Romanian coach spoke about his bond with the Thessaloniki team, the goals he has set with the club, while among other things he tried to highlight his relationship with the owner of the “two-headed team of the north” Ivan Savvidis.

In addition, Lucescu emphasized that PAOK does not have the best treatment from the referees, citing the constant favor of the Athenian teams.

The Romanian technician’s statements in detail:

On his relationship with Ivan Savvidis and the difference with his first term:

“I have an excellent relationship with the strong man of PAOK. I had an excellent relationship with him during the first term as well. Has changed. In the first term he liked to push a lot. In our meetings – back then – he was quite critical but he always found the right moment and came, gave me a hug and said: “be careful, nothing so dramatic happened, keep your spirits up”. That was his strategy to keep us all 100% focused, putting pressure on me, the management.

We had meetings even at 4 in the morning. Great times. We were in the final stretch of the league, we had the lead on points with four games left, we played one and won 3-0. After the game, he called me along with the captains, the vice president, the finance and athletic director. He scolded me in front of everyone. Less the players. It was all four leaders, whom he… scolded a little but told them they were very good. We had three more matches to play and we were seven points ahead of second place. When the meeting was over, he came to me and said: ‘come here and let me hug you, there’s no need to panic, but be careful'”

For the 2018 doubles:

“The penultimate match ends, we emerge champions, there is complete madness in the city. It was Sunday and on Thursday we had obligations in the Cup to go to the final, after we had won the first match 2-0. Everyone was saying we weren’t going to qualify as we were out of… energy. I told them to calm down. Apart from the celebrations in the streets, we didn’t celebrate the championship privately at all. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had training sessions. We qualified for the final, drawing 0-0 in Tripoli. It was something that was happening for the first time in the history of PAOK. And we still had one match left for the championship, of course we were already champions mathematically, but we could finish undefeated. After the match in Tripoli, we arrive at the airport and I say to the vice president: “I hope we don’t have any meetings today.” And he started laughing and said to me: “How about we have a meeting?”. After five minutes, he comes sullenly and says: “we have a meeting”. We arrive in Thessaloniki at dawn and go directly to the hotel and the president’s office. He criticizes me, saying: “how do you want to win the cup, how do you want to finish unbeaten? It’s impossible, what kind of football is this?”.

And at the end he tells me “please keep the team in a good mood and confident”. I turn around and answer him: “chairman, I have to go home, look in the mirror and tell myself that we didn’t get relegated today but we won the championship”. Everyone looked at me because I was nervous. The president flashed a smile and after the meeting was over, he took me in his arms and said “keep the team strong”.

For this season of PAOK:

“This year started as a transition year for us because many players changed in the summer and the club’s strategy was to renew the squad, bring in many youngsters and build a strong squad for next year. That’s why I couldn’t call it a bad start, but with two defeats in the derbies with Panathinaikos and AEK and two draws. There was a lack of homogeneity, of trust,” the Romanian coach initially said.

It’s normal when the season starts and the team works every day, the team starts to build, the new players start to understand the coach’s philosophy. We as a staff are starting to get to know our players and if there is patience and calmness, things will slowly improve”.

For the dietary treatment compared to the Athens teams:

“The main idea is that we go game by game and see what we can achieve. We had no pressure from management in that regard, because it was their decision to change. We know very well what such a decision means emotionally, especially in Thessaloniki that always wants to win. In PAOK there is this great thirst for victory and less patience. However, this year we have a deal. We keep our feet on the ground, we realize that we have a long way to go and a lot of work ahead of us.

The teams in Athens have referees who help them, protect them, while the exact opposite happens to us. Every time they get a chance, they hit us. And against Levadeiakos we scored a quick goal and after a minute, due to a mistake by our defense, the striker left alone and found himself facing the goalkeeper. The referee gave a penalty, the VAR asked him to review his decision, however, he persisted, awarding a penalty and a yellow card, which puts our goalkeeper out for offside.”

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