After establishing his Panathinaikos side as the best in Greece, many commentators were certain that the famously disloyal Trebor Mahtal would seek pastures new in the 2027 off-season. However, a summer of exciting signings and a move to a new 40,000-capacity stadium convinced the Zambian to stick with his Athenian project.
A major rebuild began by selling winger Dennis Politic, goal-shy striker Buba Diabbassey and defenders Sinaly Diomandé, Christian Østegaard and Júnior Firpo for a combined £16m. The exciting signings started with another Turkish talent as Real Madrid’s Arda Güler joined on loan with a target of 20 assists. Mahtal paid a new Greek record £10m for goalkeeper José Luis Seoane, £6m for exciting wing back Rodrigo Aquino, who rejected Man UFC, and £120k for winger Nikola Milosavljevic. They were joined by midfielder Oscar Gloukh, attacker Jhon Durán and centre back José Ovono on end-of-contract deals.
The new signings forced Mahtal into a change of shape, largely as Madrid wanted Güler to play as an AMC. So he cooked up an interesting-looking take on a 3-4-3 with Emmanuel Ojeda dropping back as a libero, Glouk retraining as a holding midfielder alongside Bruno Paulino, Yusuf Demir dropping back on the left wing and Aquino getting the freedom of the right. This squad should be far too good for the Greek Super League, but whether they can compete in the Champions League is another question.
Another Champions League Campaign
A new era began at Panathinaikos Ground as the Greek champions took on Sepsi in the Champions League playoff. Güler made his debut and created plenty, with five key passes and an assist as well as scoring himself in a comprehensive 3-1 victory, but Aquino was named man of the match. And Durán’s first goal for the club secured a 1-0 win in Romania to secure their place in the league phase.
Panathinaikos got a tricky set of fixtures that began by getting thumped 3-0 at Barca and Tottenham, but won 2-1 at home to St. Gallen. Home form proved crucial as centre back Rhys Williams’ header nicked a 1-0 over Napoli and star striker Fotis Ioannidis’ double downed Monaco 2-0 before Daniel Mancini’s late brace earned a 3-1 at Slavia Praha. Their biggest victory yet saw another Ioannidis double defeat Atlético 2-0 at home (on the same day Real beat Lyon 9-0!). But a 5-0 hammering at Arsenal saw them finish in a mighty impressive 9th and miss out on the top 8 by 8 goals.
That gave them a decent draw against Young Boys who they edged past 4-3 on aggregate in the playoff round, which intriguingly saw Real win an El Clásico tie. A tougher tie followed, but they undoubtedly got the most favourable draw available against Valencia in the last 16. The Spaniards obviously scored their first shot as they went in front after 23 seconds. But the brilliant Aquino inspired a recovery, creating goals for Ioannidis and Martín Satriano and the big Greek striker made it 4-2 in injury time. And Satriano’s early strike and a solid defensive effort earned a 1-1 in Spain.
The run was likely to end as Panathinaikos took on Chelsea. But Mahtal sprung a tactical surprise on the English side, reverting to the defensive version of his 4-4-2 and Güler and a Gloukh late strike earned a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge. He initially stuck with it for the return leg, but they started terribly and gifted Chelsea a goal, so he quickly reverted to the 3-4-3. And that served up an absolute classic.
Satriano equalised just before the break, Chelsea scored straight after half time and Satriano equalised again. Sterling and Cho looked to have nicked it only for Satriano to complete his hat trick four minutes into injury time. Chelsea scored straight away in extra time but Mahtal went for it and Satriano again stepped up by converting a penalty to secure 5-4 loss that took it to a shootout. But for the second season in a row, they were defeated on penalties by one of Europe’s elite, with Williams missing their third spot kick. So despite Satriano scoring FOUR against Chelsea, they again exited at the quarters.
This had been another amazing run, but Mahtal had to wonder if he’d taken Panathinaikos as far as he realistically could in this competition.
Seeking 3 Successive Greek Titles
Panathinaikos’ title defence began with their original Turkish magician Demir creating goals for Satriano and Daniel Mancini in a 2-1 win at Volos. Güler also impressed on his league debut, scoring a delicious curled shot after a Ioannidis brace secured a 3-0 win over PAOK for a 40,000 sellout crowd – but Aquino again stole the limelight with two assists. That set up a flying start to the campaign as the goals began to flow, including Güler scoring and creating two for Ioannidis in a 5-2 hammering of Giannina and a Ioannidis brace inspiring a 4-2 win over rivals AEK.
A tired team lost at Olympiacos but a Durán hat trick led a 4-0 beating of Larisa, which sparked another lethal run of seven successive victories to go 10 points clear heading into the new year. They picked up where they left off in 2028 as Satriano’s hat trick led a 3-1 win at Aris, taking them to 18 wins out of 19. They continued in unrelenting fashion led largely by Ioannidis, who reclaimed his club record for most goals in a season with a four-goal haul against OFI to move to 36 goals in 30 games in mid-February. And a 2-1 win over Olympiacos in mid-March took them a mighty 19 points clear of their rivals heading into the Championship Group.
They eventually strolled to a third successive Greek Super League title and 24th overall. And they did so in record-breaking fashion, setting new records for most wins (32), points (96) and goals scored (113) in league history. Ioannidis came one goal short of the league’s goalscoring record of 39 set way back in 1972 followed by Satriano with 18 and Aquino led the way with an outrageous 23 assists. Ioannidis had an 8.06 average rating followed by Aquino and Satriano (7.88 and 7.60), but furthermore, his goal tally saw him named the leading goalscorer in Europe ahead of Dusan Vlahovic and Kylian Mbappé.
Time To Move On From Greek Dominance?
Mahtal was loving life at Panathinaikos but, having established total dominance, there were questions in his mind about whether to seek out new opportunities. That said, the Panathinaikos board handed him a £45m transfer budget at the end of the season, which could persuade him to stay for one more season.
The squad offered some eye-catching numbers, led by Ioannidis bagging 48 goals in 51 games followed by Satriano (26), Güler (17), Durán (11) and Mancini (10). But Mahtal’s favourite was very much Aquino, who chipped in with an amazing 28 assists with a 7.94 average rating over 45 matches, followed in assists by Güler (17), Demir (14) and Satriano (12).
So would Mahtal stay at Panathinaikos for a fourth season? Or would he move elsewhere? He was leaning towards staying, but if an interesting job came up he’d very much consider it. Join us on Monday to discover his decision!
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