As things stand, the signing of Yassine Meriah by Olympiacos is a matter of hours. Ahmed Hassan is quite close too, and Olympiacos are also fighting for a defensive midfielder, with Willian Arao being an option, though not the only one.
These three signings will happen, and later on two or three more may follow. But although people are only busy looking into the arrivals – which is normal – it must also be understood that Olympiacos will also have to offload some p[ayers, not only to retain a balanced roster but also for financial reasons.
Emmanuel Emenike, Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe and Panagiotis Tachtsidis may have not travelled to Belgium, but still have contracts that burden Olympiacos considerably. On the Nigerian striker it is said – with certainty too – that he will return to Turkey, although for the time being he is between London and Greece.
The Belgian carries a decent name in the market and sooner or later there will be a team for him to go to, so that Olympiacos can recover at least some of the cash spent on him, while Tachtsidis is a difficult, and possibly strange case.
Besides those transfer-listed players, there also are several others who may have gone to Belgium (or are about to) but have an uncertain future at the club. In defence such are the cases of Bjorn Engels, Dimitris Nikolaou, Jagos Vukovic and Ehsan Hajsafi, while under certain conditions there may also be an issue with Omar Elabdellaoui, although this does not appear so likely anymore.
In the midfield, a lot is being said about Alaixys Romao, but as Olympiacos has no solutions for a “6” player, the African may be spared.
Finally in attack those at risk are Marko Marin, Felipe Pardo, Uros Djordjevic and even Karim Ansarifard, whose agent insists he will bring a good proposal for the Iranian’s transfer.
It is therefore easy to see that we still have a long way still to go before we know what Olympiacos’s roster will look like in the new season…