Olympiacos President Evangelos Marinakis To Decide Coach Mendilibar's Fate On Friday

The conversation around José Luis Mendilibar has moved rapidly since Olympiacos walked out of Nijmegen.

First came criticism. Then internal evaluation. Then reports that Olympiacos had begun studying potential successors. Now, according to Athens 9.84, Evangelos Marinakis and Mendilibar are scheduled to sit down together on Friday.

That makes August 14 the first clearly defined decision point in the entire post-NEC story and the significance of that meeting extends far beyond the coach himself.

Olympiacos can no longer operate with two competing plans

At the moment, the club appears to be planning two different futures simultaneously. One future contains Mendilibar, which means continuing to recruit players suited to his aggressive, vertical football:

mobile central midfielders;

athletic full-backs;

high-intensity attackers;

players capable of surviving large spaces after pressure breaks.

The other future contains a new coach. If Marcelino, Eder Sarabia, Sergio Conceicao, Roberto Martinez or another candidate ultimately takes over, the tactical requirements could change materially. That makes the Friday meeting urgent.

Olympiacos cannot sensibly complete several expensive transfers while remaining unsure whose football those players are being bought to execute.

The timing of the meeting is revealing

Olympiacos return to training Friday after being given Wednesday and Thursday off following the NEC elimination. That means the conversation is expected to occur precisely when the team begins preparing for the opening of the domestic season.

The Super League begins on August 22, with Olympiacos hosting Atromitos. There is almost no useful middle ground left.

If Mendilibar is staying, the players need to know. If he is leaving, his successor needs time.

Every additional day of uncertainty eats into preparation.

The meeting may also settle how Olympiacos interpret NEC

There are two fundamentally different conclusions the club can reach from the elimination.

The first: the football model remains correct, but the squad was not ready. If that is the conclusion, backing Mendilibar and accelerating transfers becomes logical.

The second: the squad needs strengthening, but confidence in Mendilibar’s ability to lead the next cycle has also declined. If that is the conclusion, a managerial change becomes more defensible. Friday should help establish which interpretation Marinakis actually holds.

Mendilibar has a powerful case for continuity

The argument for keeping him remains substantial. He delivered Olympiacos’ historic European breakthrough.

He gave the club a recognizable football identity. He has earned unusually strong credibility with supporters.

The squad he took into the Champions League qualifiers was visibly incomplete. Those factors matter.

Replacing him after one failed tie would be an extremely aggressive decision unless ownership believes the problems run considerably deeper.

But Marinakis also has to judge forward rather than backward

Football executives, unlike its fans, cannot make managerial decisions solely by honoring previous success.

The relevant question is not whether Mendilibar deserves respect, he unquestionably does.

The relevant question is whether the people running Olympiacos still believe his methods give the club the best probability of achieving its objectives in 2026/27. If that confidence has genuinely disappeared, history cannot repair it no matter how many times you rewatch the 2024 Conference League celebrations.

If confidence remains, the club should stop allowing the coaching situation to exist publicly in limbo and give him meaningful backing. That is why the meeting matters.

The player decisions could be almost as important

Athens 9.84 specifically reports that the conversation will also influence decisions concerning several players. Some of these players, like Dani Garcia, are individuals that have stuck around because of Mendilibar's will to keep them. That adds another dimension. Olympiacos have been linked with significant roster turnover. Several additions remain under consideration. Departures are also expected and the midfield in particular could be reshaped considerably.

The coach’s opinion matters enormously in deciding:

who stays;

who becomes expendable;

which transfers remain priorities;

and what kind of squad the club is actually constructing.

Gustavo Puerta is an excellent example

Olympiacos have just reactivated their pursuit of Puerta. Racing Santander, meanwhile, are trying to retain the Colombian and protect his value around €20m. That is a major investment decision.

If Mendilibar remains, Olympiacos have to determine how Puerta fits his football. If a coach such as Sarabia arrives, Puerta’s possession and progression qualities could arguably become even more central. This is precisely why manager and recruitment decisions have to converge rather than proceed independently.

Friday could also reduce the coaching-market noise dramatically

Marcelino.

Sarabia.

Conceição.

Riera.

Pereira.

Gallardo.

Several names have circulated.

Only some are likely to represent genuine contingency planning. A clear Marinakis–Mendilibar conversation could collapse that entire speculative market very quickly. If Mendilibar receives explicit backing, most of those stories become irrelevant.

If the two sides separate, the question immediately changes from: Will Olympiacos change coach?

to: Who has actually been contacted?

That would be a much more useful reporting threshold.

This is why the meeting is more important than another candidate name

Another coach being added to a list would tell us very little. A direct meeting between owner and coach tells us considerably more. This is where accountability, tactical vision, transfer planning and trust intersect.

Marinakis has to decide whether the club’s response to Nijmegen is:

reinforcement around Mendilibar;

or reconstruction without him.

There is no clean way to pursue both for much longer. Friday now appears to be the day when Olympiacos choose.