At the end, it was the usual picture at the very top – four clubs, painfully familiar, way above the rest of the league and competing among themselves. The biggest of all had weak year to a point.
Olympiakos finished 4th. 44 points were great when compared to the those bellow – PAS Giannina had only 38 – but nothing when compared to the real favourites. Olympiakos was not in the race for the title for the first time in years.
Perhaps Olympiakos struggled with the eternal problem of changing generations and building a new squad; perhaps they were short of cash, but it was not a strong team when compared to what they had two or three years back. Their foreign recruits were puzzling: the Danish midfielder Niels Sorensen, coming from the small Dutch club Zwolle, and the Northern Irish striker Derek Spence (his name is misspelled on the photo) from Blackpool, just relegated to Third Division. Not exactly the kind of players to influence teammates and help winning trophies. Spence appeared in 21 matches and scored 6 goals – not an impressive debut. And both players did not last after this season – Spence moved back to Blackpool and third division football; Sorensen went to Grazer AK (Austria).
Panathinaikos finished third. Not a memorable season – the only comfort perhaps came from finishing ahead of the arch-enemy Olympiakos. One point better and at least with medals.
Very similar to Olympiakos – looked like changing generations was not going well. On the picture only Kapsis remains from the team reaching the European Champions Cup final in 1971. But this is not a full-squad photo: the veterans were more – Domazos, Antoniadis and Eleftherakis were still in the team. Konstantinou, Gonios, Papadimitriou, Dimitriou were also from the old great squad. And that was a clear picture of the problem: few aging, may be declining, may be suffering from injuries veterans and few more, who were just reserves in the glory days. And not enough bright young talent – perhaps only Terzanidis, the new midfielder just acquired from PAOK. And the foreign recruits were not very flashy… a mysterious ‘Giorgievits’ appears above, but there was not such player in the roster. Most likely this is Djordjevic, a little known Yugoslavian player, who arrived in 1976. He played only 2 matches this season… but stayed with Panathinaikos longer and generally contributed to the team. Alas, not a star. The Argentine Oscar Alvarez, one of the PAS Giannina Latin American stable, was much better addition this season. He was clearly bought because of his scoring abilities – according to some sources, he scored 77 goals for Giannina since 1974; according to other info – 41. He delivered, though – with 18 goals, he finished the second best scorer of the league this season. But his goals were hardly enough…
Not enough to overcome PAOK – riding still on their sturdy team, which won the championship two years ago, PAOK finished 2nd. They were not a title contenders, but finishing above Olympiakos and Panathinaikos was satisfying success.
Perhaps the poorest of the big 4 clubs, PAOK was not in a position to make big transfers, but the team was experienced and dependable. The success story was the foreigners: both Fortoula and Guerino Neto were anonymous players at home, but really flourished in PAOK, becoming the backbone of the team and two of most respected footballers playing in Greece at that time. The only problem was fundamental – PAOK was not wealthy enough to build really strong squad. The title was clearly out of their reach – they finished with 46 points, 7 points behind the champions.
And the champions are easily guessed by now: only AEK (Athens) was not mentioned so far. AEK had some of the biggest Greek stars of the time – the veteran midfielder Mimis Papaioannou, playing for AEK since 1963, and the top striker Thomas Mavros, recently acquired from Panionios. Mavros ended the league scorer of the season with 22 goals. He was only 24 years old, but playing his 7th professional season. Dusan Bajevic, the biggest transfer not only of this season, arrived from Velez (Mostar), adding more power to the attack (Bajevic did not have great first season, but eventually settled in his new club and lived up to his reputation). And one more big name was added along with Bajevic – the midfielder Milton Viera, already famous in Greece as Olympiakos players. And AEK had the former coach of the national team of Holland, Frantisek Fadrhonc, at the helm. Alas, AEK started badly and Fadrhonc was fired after the second round. Andreas Stamatiadis coach provisionally the team for the next two rounds until suitable replacement of the old Czech was found. It was another veteran with truly great reputation: the master builder of the great Bayern, the man introducing Beckenbauer, Muller, and Maier to the world. Zlatko Cajkovski. The legendary Yugoslav delivered – under him, AEK did not stumble. They lost only 2 matches this season and won 21. They scored 74 goals. And they left the league back in the dust – AEK finished 7 points ahead of PAOK.
Dominant champions. And it was not all – AEK reached the final for the Cup, where they met again their closest pursuer in the championship, PAOK. The best teams of the year clashed one more time. Bajevic scored in the 50th minute and exactly half an hour later Mavros made sure who was really best. PAOK was defeated 2-0. AEK finished with a double.
High flying eagles, indeed – 6th title and 8th Cup. A fine season for the club founded by refugees from Constantinople (Istanbul).