Beyonce, BATE and Bob The Builder

By: Chris Paraskevas | October 24th, 2009

As always, nothing ever even slightly connected to AEK Athens is simple or easy.

Take for example, the fact that I had already fashioned this blog entry a mere few days ago. The reason it didn’t turn up then? An Offside blogger’s nightmare: namely not bothering to continually “Save” the article on Wordpress due to a misplaced self-confidence in not accidentally navigating away from the page and losing the hard-earned work of a solid 10-15 minutes.

For yours truly in particular and his notoriously unstable forearm work, it was an ill-advised move that ended up bringing about an indescribable feeling of frustration and eventually, depression, as I somehow contrived to click on a link to another website despite it being nowhere near the work I was doing (note to self: save more often and generally don’t touch mouse…ever…)

It’s not the first time that it’s happened – I dedicated one of my earlier blogs to the event, thinking that the phenomena deserved a mention – but every time it does happen, it deserves a mention; we Offsiders are a tough breed.

In any case, the focus of my article revolves around three happenings:

1. A midweek Europa League defeat to Belarusian outfit BATE Borisov that saw the side’s two nominal centre-backs sent off with next-to-no cover for them (sterling work gentlemen) ahead of a return clash against the same side that will deide our fate in Europe this season (i.e. whether we progress to the knockout stages and get pummeled, or whether we remain in the group stages and get pummeled). Conditions that were probably more conducive to an illegal drug operation in a tropic jungle didn’t help the cause, Sebastian Saja’s goalkeeping suffering and ultimately costing us three valuable points. The reality though is that AEK simply aren’t good enough for Greece, let alone Europe, this season.

2. As if to highlight the relative unimportance of the club in its current state, a November league clash at home to Larissa was cancelled to make way for a Beyonce Knowles concert. Personally I don’t see the appeal or any particular musical talent, despite the weight of Kanye West’s expert pop-cultural opinion, but the reality of the situation is that the closet Beyonce fans in AEK’s hooligan firm Original 21 will probably get more value for money than at any other point this season if they happened to accidentally “find their way” into her show claiming that they were unaware of cancellation of the match.

3. American businessman Robert Kozonis (already nicknamed “Bob The Builder”) who has made his fortune in construction, is now set to take over the club and address its financial woes. He seems to be the closest thing to a saviour that the club has been so desperately craving over the past 12 months. An official announcement should be made about his takeover on Monday.

I’ll leave you with an inspiring video of Dusan Bajevic being sent to the stands by virtue of his part-Greekness against Bate: