Fatih Terim came to Greece on December 26, 2023 with joy and great excitement. The people of Panathinaikos, in the person of the 71-year-old Turkish coach, saw the leader who will lead their team to success, possibly to winning the championship, something that has happened since the 2009-10 season. So one understands for how many years and what distress there is in his fans. The team is in the 4th place of the general standings and all they have managed to do is present themselves in the final of the Greek Cup where they will face Ari Thessaloniki.

So in these 5 months, Panathinaikos with the Turkish Fatih Terim in his technical leadership

Panathinaikos, which had at its disposal the best possible preparation, went to Toumba and lost 4-1 to the Romanian PAOK, Razvan Lucescu, without being able to trouble the home team in any of the cases.

Panathinaikos went up to Thessaloniki knowing that PAOK was the big motivation. The motivation of the "greens" was lost somewhere in the narrow streets of New Philadelphia after the big defeat against AEK. PAOK played as long as needed, as it does every time against Panathinaikos. The three goals in the playoffs from the Leoforos match made a total of seven. Nine passives in the last three games, in the three consecutive defeats.

The Panathinaikos players were a jumble which made the team unable to react. Terim did not seem to have prepared the team for a "final" as the game was. And yet the 70-year-old Turkish coach (with a trophy case full of course in the old days) could not wake up his players, lest they react.

It is now clear that Terim has a problem with the dressing room, as there are not a few of his players who seem unhappy with his actions. Apparently he has taken some with him and the others feel bad. From a contender for the title, Panathinaikos has fallen to 4th place and will be content with claiming 3rd place against Olympiakos.

But things are not going anywhere like that. The owner and president of Panathinaikos, Yiannis Alafouzos, who took over the greens in 2012 in an extremely difficult situation (the team was in danger of bankruptcy and saved it by investing several millions) is at an impasse. He has understood that with the presence of Terim, Panathinaikos cannot do better, but at the given moment it is difficult to find someone to take over as an official coach. There have been some contacts (reportedly) with Christos Kontis  (Ivan Jovanovic's partner when he was the coach of the greens), but he is not sure that he wants to take the "hot potato" in his hands now.

Well, the only solution, as things seem, is for Terim to stay until the final of the cup against Aris and then to end its partnership with Panathinaikos. Developments are expected to be rapid...