It seems that the loss of the title has someone brought the Panathinaikos planet out of orbit and that combined with the possible departure of Zeljko Obradovic, could be the reasons of the offer that was made to the Serbian coach.
According to basketblog.gr, the new president of Panathinaikos, Dimitris Giannakopoulos(who is also the son of the team's owner) wants to offer Zeljko Obradovic the additional boon of the 25% of the team's shares. Obviously this gets added to his salary as a head coach and also whatever will be agreed as the players' budget. The article estimates that the players' budget will be along the lines of 12 million euros.
It's no secret that Dimitris Giannakopoulos and Zeljko Obradovic are not on the best of terms. They've locked horns in the past on a few occasions although their conflicts were subtle and indirect so to say. Dimitris Giannakopoulos is offering something that has not been offered to a team's head coach before but it also could be translated as a move of desperation. Or someone else might say that he offered him so much and if Obradovic refuses in the end there wasn't anything else he could do.
Obradovic cannot lose financially. That is a given. He could lose in other ways though. The main ingredients of his winning team are not getting any younger. Once Batiste and Diamantidis have retired what is Panathinaikos left with? Who will fill their shoes?
Perhaps it's the best time for a change of environment for Obradovic regardless of not winning the Greek League title and the Euroleague. Hopefully there will be a definite answer to this sooner rather than later. One thing is for sure. He won't find it difficult to find the next contract.
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What is the purpose of owning 25% of a club that loses 10 million euros/year? That you can be held responsible when the club goes bankrupt?
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