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The Football Thread (2 Viewers)

veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

fowler = sydney in top 2 easily, he will be massive in the a-league, and judging by the stories just about him maybe signing he'll make plenty of headlines. only downside of the move will be the sea of red infecting SFS
 

Gilbert1

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

veridis said:
fowler = sydney in top 2 easily, he will be massive in the a-league, and judging by the stories just about him maybe signing he'll make plenty of headlines. only downside of the move will be the sea of red infecting SFS
apparently Fowler is going to the oil filled middle east over Australia.
 

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

PPL r saying hes got alot of investments n that hes rich n all...but thats all in the UK y wud he wanna come here???anyway hes gone to Cardiff...Sydney cud win without him anyone but theyre gonna struggle without a marquee player...I hope they get one otherwise theyll go thru another whole season without one that wud b dissapointing...
 

mat2154

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

it is pretty disappointing that sydney have only signed popovic this season, what happened to all the rumours of cocu or jay jay okocha? they could try to sign veron (doubt he'd be interested) hes just been released by chelsea
 
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veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

marquee will be aloisi or nobody imo. he still has no good offers from europe and the only reason he didn't sign before was he wanted a 3 year contract but we offered two. sure he scored in the asian cup but it was a scrappy goal and he didn't play well enough to really increase his value much.
if we don't get aloisi we NEED our u20 signings to be strikers, even if they dont play just to put some pressure on zdrillic to actually perform and give us some options on the bench. if butcher can get us 4th(3rd i it wasnt for points deduction) then i'm confident branko can do the same, but without some firepower up front we'd have to be lucky to do well in the finals
 
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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

veridis said:
marquee will be aloisi or nobody imo. he still has no good offers from europe and the only reason he didn't sign before was he wanted a 3 year contract but we offered two. sure he scored in the asian cup but it was a scrappy goal and he didn't play well enough to really increase his value much.
if we don't get aloisi we NEED our u20 signings to be strikers, even if they dont play just to put some pressure on zdrillic to actually perform and give us some options on the bench. if butcher can get us 4th(3rd i it wasnt for points deduction) then i'm confident branko can do the same, but without some firepower up front we'd have to be lucky to do well in the finals
srsly....u guys are gonna get no-where with 33+ marquee signings who are going to do jack for you except take your money. aloisi would be olrite i guess...but cocu and okocha??? u have got to be kidding me. take a leaf out of the victory's books, get someone who will actually give back to the club and make a difference.
 

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

aodmjgnwpekignw said:
srsly....u guys are gonna get no-where with 33+ marquee signings who are going to do jack for you except take your money. aloisi would be olrite i guess...but cocu and okocha??? u have got to be kidding me. take a leaf out of the victory's books, get someone who will actually give back to the club and make a difference.
Sydney have a poor scouting system compared to melbourne, we don't have scouts running around south america so we got to stick with aussie based players and older english based players.

okocha is a heaps better player than aloisi, sure hes a bit past it in terms of pace but hes skill on the ball (dribbling, control) is sublime and it would draw massive crowds. even pele picked him in the top 100 players of all time, no offence aloisi probably wouldn't even make the top thousand
 

veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

yeah cause victory's scouting worked so well, 2 complete failures and 1 who fucked off after a year. fred was really "someone who will actually give back to the club". i'm sick of people who after season 1 were in love with dwight are now suddenly lifelong supporters of south american scouting just cause it won this year. both methods can be successful, any of the marquees linked to sydney would rip it up. people also see the marquee stuff in the media and forget that sydnye fc scouted and signed a guy from the US. the fact that everyone knows about SFCs marquee attempts but have NFI about the non-marquee players that we scouted and signed show just how powerful the marquee concept it.
 

timlay

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

wellington phoenix beat sydney fc 3-0 ..

its a pre season friendly anyway but still... :/ better be a one off sorta thing.
 

Gilbert1

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

mat2154 said:
it is pretty disappointing that sydney have only signed popovic this season, what happened to all the rumours of cocu or jay jay okocha? they could try to sign veron (doubt he'd be interested) hes just been released by chelsea
Sydney signed Popovic? cool
 
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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

veridis said:
yeah cause victory's scouting worked so well, 2 complete failures and 1 who fucked off after a year. fred was really "someone who will actually give back to the club". i'm sick of people who after season 1 were in love with dwight are now suddenly lifelong supporters of south american scouting just cause it won this year. both methods can be successful, any of the marquees linked to sydney would rip it up. people also see the marquee stuff in the media and forget that sydnye fc scouted and signed a guy from the US. the fact that everyone knows about SFCs marquee attempts but have NFI about the non-marquee players that we scouted and signed show just how powerful the marquee concept it.
well....i wouldn't say 2 complete failures, but they didn't work out that well i admit. however, alex was also able to draw big crowds for melbourne whilst getting a fraction of the wages of a sydney marquee. it goes to show that 'big names' which sydney are so desperately seeking can be matched by other players who play attractive football. claudinho admittedly was a waste of time. fred has gone onto bigger and better things in the US, and we actually made a profit outta him which has funded our latest scouting attempts. u guys are searching for big names simply to re-inforce sydney's glamour image. thats your main priority. it's all about getting the crowds into the stadium and bringing in the money instead of playing good football and winning games. Michael Enfield will be a flop, only 11 games and 1 goal for currently one of the worst-performing teams in the US.
 

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

i support sydney fc but you have to admit that melbourne have a better scouting system look at who they have brought in:

Grant Brebner (one of the mest midfielders last season)
carlos hernandez (world cup star)
geoffrey claeys (solid defender)
joe keenan (young up and coming player)
fred

claudinho's been the only unsucessful signing and that was only cause he couldn't settle into the country

the only sucessful non big name import at sydney has been terry mcflynn
the only other imports are salazar who was absolutely hopeless, only signed cause of his marathon running dad and enfield who i agree will probably never get to play

sure it important to sign the big names ie Yorke, but you have to supplement it with young/imported talent
 

Gilbert1

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

Sydney seem to put alot of effort into signing one or two big players but they always pull out at the last chance.
 
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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

mat2154 said:
Sydney have a poor scouting system compared to melbourne, we don't have scouts running around south america so we got to stick with aussie based players and older english based players.

okocha is a heaps better player than aloisi, sure hes a bit past it in terms of pace but hes skill on the ball (dribbling, control) is sublime and it would draw massive crowds. even pele picked him in the top 100 players of all time, no offence aloisi probably wouldn't even make the top thousand
agree 100%, but i reckon you guys need a quality striker asap to give competition to brosque and zdrillic. you guys have enough people available in the middle of the park, and considering corica is loved by culina, will probably played 75%+ of the games. i dunno how connected branko is with others in the world, but the main reason victory's been very active in south america is due to merrick's connections with others in the area who report to him.

mat2154 said:
i support sydney fc but you have to admit that melbourne have a better scouting system look at who they have brought in:

Grant Brebner (one of the mest midfielders last season)
carlos hernandez (world cup star)
geoffrey claeys (solid defender)
joe keenan (young up and coming player)
fred

claudinho's been the only unsucessful signing and that was only cause he couldn't settle into the country

the only sucessful non big name import at sydney has been terry mcflynn
the only other imports are salazar who was absolutely hopeless, only signed cause of his marathon running dad and enfield who i agree will probably never get to play

sure it important to sign the big names ie Yorke, but you have to supplement it with young/imported talent
yep thanks. veridis you seem to have conveniently forgotton the above players recruited by victory.

chuck in-

kemp-one of the best players in the playoffs last year.
milicevic-has UEFA Champions League experience and has played against Arsenal and Ajax for FC Thun.
kaz patafta-an up and coming aussie footballer.
+ another signing in the next few days.
 

veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

why should we supplement it with imported talent that is no better than what australia has to offer? milligan and carney are both easily better than any of melbournes imports bar fred, are younger and were signed cheaper(though both got big increases in v2). brebner is a solid squad player but not a star. claeys was a disappointment hence being dropped, i dont know how you can claim otherwise when he could only just hold his spot in a side that came 7th. tbh i rate leijer a better prospect than keenan(who at 24 is hardly young) and i think he's lucky victorys better defenders are central.
i wont include hernandez with the others as he is an unknown quantity and i reserve my judgement on him, however given as he's keeping broxham and kaz(two of our best young prospects) out of the starting lineup unless he's better than fred i dont see how he can be good for aus soccer. ignoring hernandez i reckon kaz was MVs best pickup of the offseason and they admit that was a total fluke.
anyone remember the kitzbitch? robinson? victory had their share of duds too.

side note you forget that brockie was another expensive sydney import that flopped. we were shit v2, both on and off the field, but i dont see what we could have done differently since to stop the criticism that we "dont scout", apart from sign an unknown south american instead of an unknown north american. there was no budget for more players, sasho's wage went straight to poppa. marquee was our only real option to improve the team, it would have been stupid for us not to puruse it
 

veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

aodmjgnwpekignw said:
yep thanks. veridis you seem to have conveniently forgotton the above players recruited by victory.

chuck in-

kemp-one of the best players in the playoffs last year.
milicevic-has UEFA Champions League experience and has played against Arsenal and Ajax for FC Thun.
kaz patafta-an up and coming aussie footballer.
+ another signing in the next few days.
none of whom were scouted so dont matter in this discussion, which is about scouting. i never said that victory had a bad squad, they'll do well this year and are probably favourites to win(though i think the gap is closing), but i object to people who think that victorys scouting is the be all and end all. they've done a lot of the same trawling through lower euro leagues and getting older players that people criticise SFC for supposedly doing.
merricks connections are mainly through 2 expats over there who have talked to other clubs as well, MV took advantage of these links before anyone else because they offloaded so much dead weight after v1. it's hardly the scouts running round SA that matt seems to think, matt also used primarily euro players as examples but claims MVs scouting is so good in SA. the nix scouting is more surprising as the contacts they've used are thus far unknown and appear to have been actively pursued by the club rather than the other way around.
to finish sydneys scouting sucks, but to think anyone has a proper scouting system that is somehow qualitatively different is naive in the extreme and to criticise SFC pursuing a marquee is quite simply stupid. we've used up all our cap due to poor contractual management but still need more strike power up front, it would be irresponsible not to try and get a marquee striker
 
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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

of course you must have imported talent. australia has nothing to offer right atm, apart from the youngsters who are already signed with a-league clubs. claeys was a disappointment due to the quality he had around him in version 2, and he fell out of favour with merrick. in version 1, he was a regular. if brebner isn't a star, it would be safe to say about 0/10 of sydneys squad aren't either.
have you ever seen keenan play??? you did realise he was touted as the next ashley cole a few years back until he broke his leg playing for chelsea. you don't see how hernandez could be good for aussie football?? his presence in the league will increase the quality a lot, and isn't that what we want??? kitz was a gun when he was around, and robinson probably played 5 minutes a game last season, and scored arguably one of the most important goals. he is also trailling with perth glory, so i wouldnt call him a dud.

how do you know they weren't scouted??? i'm sure victory wouldn't be stupid enough to sign players based on reputation alone (unlike sydney). we don't just sign players for the sake of it. i'm sure victory's scouts would have analysed where they would they can play, and how they would fit into merricks tactical plan. who is old that victory have signed?? admittedly, claeys and kitz were getting on in version 1, but at least we have learnt from that lesson, and signed younger players nearing the prime of their careers.

finally, the only striker you guys are looking at getting is aloisi. vieri (35 i think??) turned you guys down and signed with fiorentina. all the rest are midfielders.....
 

veridis

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

so you say australia has nothing, then say claeys was only a disappointment cause he was outshone by his primarily aussie teammates. in v1, when melbourne were in bad form and had a weaker squad, claeys started what 2/3 of the matches? given victory's season thats disappointing.
do you know what star means? star means one of the top 3 or 4 players in the squad, so yes most of sydney's players arent stars. brebner was not a star, as i said a solid player and a decent import but not great.
haha you criticise my lack of knowledge about keenan but base your argument of media reports from a few years back. yes i have seen highlights of keenan playing(including the game he broke his leg v arsenal), he did have a lot of potential, but now at 24 hasn't developed much at all. hence why he was in belgium when he recovered and then couldnt even break into an erdivisie team that just escaped relegation. i will say again, i rate leijer a better player and given the age difference leijer is certainly the better prospect. you keep criticising SFC for supposedly not looking outside england but your entire argument about keenan is "he almost made it in england 5 years ago"
i didn't say i dont see how zorro can be good for aus football, just that he is going to have to be a VERY high standard. by bringing hernandez in MV are stunting the progress of kaz and broxham, two of australia's best young prospects, if hernandez is as good as or better than fred he'll be a big bonus for the league. if on the other hand hernandez is at the level of say burns or corica, a level towards the top of aleague but not outstanding, then i feel that the damage he does to kaz and broxham's progress would not be worth it.
kitz was shit, he was released from a team that came 7th, what exactly did he achieve?
you released robinson, thus he was not good enough, thus your scouting was poor. imports should not be fringe players, imports should be automatic first teamers that raise the standard of the league. we have plenty of young aussie guys who can be fringe players. do you see how he was a dud now, and cmon you're really trying to argue that trialing with perth makes him good? perth?

they werent scouted because they were brought to the attention of the MV staff by other means(merrick talking to kaz's girlfriend, milicevic contacting the club himself, kemp pinched from AU) and then brought to melbourne for trials. you dont even comprehend the difference between scouting and trialling yet think you have some masterful insight into how sydney should improve player recruitment. you're fucking stupid.
 

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

veridis said:
kitz was shit, he was released from a team that came 7th, what exactly did he achieve?
you released robinson, thus he was not good enough, thus your scouting was poor. imports should not be fringe players, imports should be automatic first teamers that raise the standard of the league.
Kitzbichler was great. One of our best players in season one. Also, he was released not because we didn't want him, but because he had been offered a player/coach role at Red Bull Salzburg, and Austrian First Division team and former club of Kitz's.

Robinson was an import playing in Australia before we picked him up, he had been scoring goals in the VPL and had been training with Victory, he was signed on a short contract to provide some permanent cover for Archie and Danny. I disagree that you think Imports should be automatic first teamers. Robinson was the perfect backup striker, and the fact that he was an import was irrelevant as Victory weren't planning to sign any other 'automatic first team import'. He was the best striking cover available, obviously he had been doing better than any local strikers. He also scored the crucial goal v Adelaide in last seasons Semi.

Oh and, Terry McFlynn... Northern Irish isn't he?I dont really think he's raising the standard of the league too much, you could just as well fill the CM spot with Milligan now that Popovic has signed. Milligan and Talay > McFlynn
 

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Re: The Official A-League Thread.

Without a youth/reserves system, the A-League will not be able to grow and sustain a professional career objective for upcoming young Australian players. Expansion of the A-League to say... a 12 team competition within the next 5 years is also important to gaining some credibility to the league.
 

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