Panathinaikos management will offer current head coach Zeljko Obradovic a new contract in order to keep him at the club for an additional three years.
Reports coming from Greece suggest that the offer consists of a three year plan including a proposed budget of minimum €12.000.000 (taxes included) and the guarantee that the Giannakopoulos family, who run the club will stay for an additional three years. Obradovic will also receive 25% of Panathinaikos shares.
The initial budget that the Giannakopoulos family were offering was €10.000.000, while Obradovic has stated that he would like a budget of €15.000.000 and for the team to keep a core of seven players, including Dimitris Diamantidis, Mike Batiste, Nick Calathes, Stratos Perperoglou, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Ian Vougioukas and Sarunas Jasikevicius in order to be competitive.
After a successful season in 2011, Panathinaikos lost their nine year grip on the Greek title, losing to bitter rivals Olympiacos, plus watching the same team stun CSKA Moscow to win the Euroleague crown in Istanbul.
Obradovic stated following Panathinaikos’ last home game, an 84-74 success over Olympiacos in game four of the Greek finals that this might be his last game at the OAKA. They went on to lose in game five thus losing their grip on the A1 championship.
