Is the greek league that bad? not too many players in the us pool can hit that strike. I'm wondering if he is an overlooked player in the pool.
I don’t know if it’s that bad but it’s certainly top heavy. Historically Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, and AEK have dominated but PAOK and Aris have had varying degrees of success in the last 10 years or so. What little of the Greek Super Liga that I’ve seen, it’s always looked like a quick drop in quality after those 5 clubs.
The guy has a strong long-distance shot, but positionally he's meh. The Greek Super League is about MLS-strength, but the defending is better. Gboly has two so far this season, playing mainly on the left as a sort of winger/forward hybrid.
Good point. Their #2 last season, PAOK, managed to eliminate Beşiktaş in the Champions, and their champion Olympiakos managed to beat Marseille at home 1-0. But the bottom of the table is quite weak and practically unwatchable.
I get the feeling this guy will plug away and be a useful journeyman at some point. He seems to have some hard to find talents and I could see him carving a nice career. Glad he's getting PT
As others have already mentioned, outside the top 5, it is pretty weak. A good comparison would be Gboly's old stomping ground in the SPL. It's not as totally lopsided, as the third-to-fifth sides can reasonably hope to do a Leicester and overhaul underperforming Olympiacos and PAOK, but Greece's bottom half is Motherwell-St Mirren/mid-table League One territory. That's the reason why he got into Southampton's famous youth system and was picked up by Leeds when they released him. Unfortunately, there are reasons why Leeds released him and Nottingham Forest never played him: he has great individual skills and his unpredictability makes him a real headache for opponents, when he's in form. Unfortunately, he's not always in form and even when he is, he's often as unpredictable for his team mates and coaches as he is for the other side. He's an old-fashioned individualist winger who doesn't seem to fit into systems. That's enough for mid-table in League One or the SPL and bottom half in Greece, but higher levels sides will pass on him. In 7 seasons, he's played 164 senior games, which isn't bad for a 25 year-old. But, out of the 141 games he played in Britain, 139 were in League One or for an SPL bottom-third side. At 25, if he's ever to trouble the MNT's radar, this has to be the season for him: i.e. he is his team's star player and pushes rather than leads them to a serious EL challenge, leading to a transfer to a big Greek side or a bigger league. If not, he'll carve out a good career at this level - if COVID allows it - but he won't make camp shortlists
Gboly Ariyibi grabbed the assist on Panetolikos' lone goal in their 1-2 loss to league leaders Olympiacos. The winger, now 25 y/o, now has two goals and an assist in his second season in Greece. pic.twitter.com/vDOOUK4fYe— Yanks Abroad (@usmnt_abroad) January 9, 2021
Starts: 26 yr old former 🇺🇸YNT winger, Gboly Ariyibi, starting for Panetolikos FC in the Greek top tier pic.twitter.com/raqTxO4J46— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) January 28, 2021
Scored today: ⚽️Make that *3* goals and 2 assists for the American! pic.twitter.com/XlfoIgZbEP— Yanks Abroad (@usmnt_abroad) February 8, 2021
The goal: Gboly Ariyibi scored the loan goal for Panetolikos in a 2-1 loss to PAS Giannina. pic.twitter.com/N71UIsJv6e— The Yank Watch (@TheYankWatch) February 9, 2021
The only reason Panetolikos didn't go down last season is because two clubs got points deducted due to administrative issues, so this season they remain strong candidates for relegation.
26 yr old former 🇺🇸YNT winger, Gboly Ariyibi, starts for Panetolikos FC in the Greek top tier pic.twitter.com/svoIYG6Fh3— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) March 7, 2021 Started and scored Gboly Ariyibi scores!!!🇺🇸⚽️💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/IgKH36mEWu— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) March 7, 2021
Gboly is my ultimate late-in-career dark horse sudden impact USMNT player, like Beckerman or Edson Buddle before him. He's hanging around and gonna have some more interesting moves before it's all said and done.
His issue was never physical (6'1/170 lbs) with speed. He just couldn't pick up the mental part fast enough.
Starts: 26 yr old former 🇺🇸YNT winger, Gboly Ariyibi, starting for @FC_Panetolikos in the Greek top tier pic.twitter.com/o9pbEIaSYP— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) April 3, 2021
On the bench for the 1st leg of the relegation playoffs: Escalações de Xanthi (4-2-3-1) e Panetolikos (4-2-3-1) para o primeiro duelo da repescagem da Super League, que começa em 5 minutos em Xanthi. Hoje é o primeiro de dois duelos. pic.twitter.com/enNg5dTdWm— 🇬🇷 Futebol Grego (@FutebolGrego) May 26, 2021
They lost 2-1, which is not so bad because the return leg is in Agrinio and the Aetolians should win that one.
They did, 1-0, so they win the playoff on away goals and stay in D1 for another season, their 9th in a row. As in the first leg, Gboly got 15' off the bench. He was a starter throughout the regular season and in the first half of the relegation round, before the dreaded "not in squad" appeared and he missed the remaining games, before being restored for the play-off. Not sure why that is; maybe he was injured, or maybe it was tactical. All told, he got almost 2,000 minutes in 31 games across all competitions, which is a big increase on last season, where he got 1,100 minutes in 20 games. The lad's making progress
Moves to Turkey: 🚨ÖZEL HABER | TRANSFER 🔥Söz verdiğimiz ve ilk bizden duyduğunuz özel haberimiz;Ankaragücü, Panetolikos forması giyen Amerikalı Hücum oyuncusu Gboly Ariyibi ile anlaşma sağladı. 🔗 İşte Detaylar: https://t.co/1G1pS5F8jR pic.twitter.com/jafPpYVTTM— Ankaragücü Haber Analiz (@AnkaragucuHA) July 12, 2021