The manager who defined an era just walked out
Răzvan Lucescu has left PAOK. The Romanian signed a two-year contract with Al Sadd on Sunday, departing after a second spell that delivered two Greek league titles and a Conference League quarter-final (1). The timing is brutal: the squad is in Zaltbommel, two friendlies into a four-match Dutch camp, and now there is no manager.
This is not a sacking. It is a departure on Lucescu's terms, to a club offering something PAOK could not match, whether money, a new challenge, or simply a fresh start. For the fans, it feels like a rupture. Lucescu was more than results. He was the emotional engine of the team, the touchline fire, the man who made PAOK believe they could bully anyone in Greece on their day.
Now that engine is gone, and someone has to rebuild it before the season even starts.
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The football looked good, which makes this stranger
PAOK beat Westerlo 4–0 on Friday in the second friendly of the Dutch camp (2) (4) (5). That is eight goals scored across two matches, zero conceded. Konstantelias and Zivkovic both played. Elustondo, the new Spanish centre-back, got minutes alongside Michailidis. Hatsidis said it plainly: "We are finding chemistry and getting better" (2).
There was a shape, a rhythm, a sense that Lucescu's pre-season plan was working. The squad did not look like a group in crisis. It looked like a group ready to compete.
That is the strange part. The football suggests coherence. The dugout now says the opposite.
Who picks the team now, and who builds the project?
Pantelis Konstantinidis and the remaining coaching staff will presumably take the friendlies. But the board needs a decision. Do you promote internally, find a stopgap, or hire a long-term replacement before the competitive matches begin?
Taison is back on a reduced one-year deal and joining the camp. Elustondo has arrived with a point to prove. Youngster Gkitterso departed PAOK B for Asteras Aktor (3). The squad is taking shape. What it lacks is the person who decides what that shape means on the pitch.
Lucescu's exit resets everything: the tactical plan, the hierarchy in the dressing room, the expectations for the season. PAOK finished third last year with 64 points and a plus-34 goal difference (1). The ceiling under Lucescu was high. Without him, nobody knows where the ceiling sits.
Watch the next friendly, and the dugout
The Dutch camp continues. PAOK play again this week, and the eyes will not be on the pitch alone. Who stands in the technical area matters more than the scoreline. If a new name appears, the direction becomes clearer. If it does not, the uncertainty lingers. Either way, this pre-season just stopped being about fitness and became about the most important decision the club will make all year.
