The project pitch just got real
Walter Lusa is in the squad for Monday's trip to Livadeia, and the midfielder did not need long to explain why he is here. "The project brought me to Panathinaikos, I want to leave something great," he said this week (5). It is a good line. It is also exactly the promise a 0–0 opener at home to Kifisia cannot yet back up.
The season unofficially started last Sunday with that flat goalless draw, a result that puts Panathinaikos on one point and, predictably, near the bottom of the table after one round. Nobody should panic about a draw this early. But Monday is the real opener in tone: away, sold out on the road, and with two new signings getting their first competitive minutes.
The squad sheet tells you where the season tilts
Kangua gets his debut at Levadiakos, and Lusa is in the group for the first time (1). Zarouri is the notable absentee, out of the squad for the trip. That is the story in miniature: the midfield is being rebuilt around players who have never kicked a ball for this club in a competitive match, while someone who should be part of the rotation is already watching from outside.
Get the next Panathinaikos brief by email
This article went out to subscribers as a brief. Get the next one straight to your inbox, free.
Free · No spam · Unsubscribe anytime
The incomings are not finished. Jakub Piotrowski of Udinese is the latest name on the midfield list (4). It reads like a club still shopping in the final days of the window, trying to give a thin midfield more cover before the fixture list fills up with Europe. Milos Pantovic, meanwhile, has two Super League suitors but the Serbian does not want to come back to Greece (2). That door is closed.
The away end is already the loudest part of the story
The extra 600 tickets for Levadiakos sold out, and the club went back and secured 800 more, taking the away allocation to 1,400 (3) (6). For a Monday evening opener in Livadeia, that is a statement. The support is there before the results are. It sets a tone the players will feel the moment they walk out.
What to watch
Levadiakos away on Monday is the test of whether the new midfield works at all together. Then comes PAOK at home on Sunday September 6, the first real benchmark of the season. Kangua and Lusa need minutes before that one, not talk. The Conference League group starts after that with Borac at OAKA, Brighton to finish (7). The project Lusa signed up for is about to be measured in points, not quotes.
