2014/15 Transfer Speculation

In that photo he kinda looks like Squidward from SpongeBob Squarepants

 

They may have been convalescing (Fenton, Riera) and queuing up outside Immigration getting residency sorted (Krishna, Riera??)

Riera back in Auckland enjoying the sunshine.

Don't expect too much - Rob Morrison in the news today saying that signing big names didn't work for the HIGHLANDERS, so we don't need to either.

These are the guys running our club. FFS.

Saidknee know the real truth. 5th is as good as 9th if you don't win your knock out playoff game. 

Pfft, "highlanderS"

 

Everyone knows there can be only one.

 

Yeah and they are people who dug deep into their own pockets to make sure we still have a club.

Signing a big name marquee isn't a panacea for our problems. What would help fix the issues we have, is using the legal cap rorts that we don't appear to be doing. Make Carlos foreign marquee, Dura 'Aussie' marquee and that would give us tons of cash inside the cap to recruit better. But I'm not the one paying for it, so easy for me to say.

Marquee doesn't = success.

Kewell, Heskey, Del Piero, Gallas please remind me how their teams went this year?

Whilst they might add a little class and bums on seats, it still takes a team to be competitive and I'd rather sign 3 good players than 1 quality player and only be able to afford 2 average ones as well.

And FFS they have lined up prem league teams for our pre season - give them a break!

The example of the highlanders is a completely fair one. 

The highlanders comparison fits the arguement, but isnt all telling the whole story.  

 Moneyball's legacy isnt primarily about spending less money on players.  It's the better use of new quantitative data to better assess players potential performance  - whether they are million pound players or vince lia. 

All things being equal, Big money does buy Big Success if you are buying a range of players based a good player data.

How evs, I agree with Metal: I'd take 3, solid, competent cheapees two with real room to progress, over a single marque any ol season....

I don't want a marquee. I just want good solid players that want to play for the club and a few players with something special - Ifill, Hernandez etc.

I think we're on the cusp of having the right balance but we've still got too many journeymen

Journeymen as in solid, completed apprenticeship, proficient?

Or as in been on the books of a good number of clubs?

Journyman as in my "f888cking granny is better, and she's dead etc etc"

Sandra Redknapp sort of journeyman then.

oi you cheeky....

I'm not necessarily saying any old marquee but surely if it's an option to improve the squad, get people through the gate, it should at least be considered?

This attitude of just saying no and then using a team from a different sport as an example of this policy not working is just lazy.

As for 9th and 5th being no different, I beg to differ.

Were our finals appearances worthless because we didn't win the thing?

Some said on the podcast that Australian players generally don't want to come here. But with the prem games he hoping it will change. Think he onto something there

It would only change if coming to play for the Nix makes up in some way for not playing on the 'mainland', if you pardon the pun.
Short of attracting players who can't get a game in OZ based clubs, there is no real advantage. Hence attracting say 2nd Div Spanish players is not a bad option instead, except for the visa issues.

Sorry but that is complete BS - if we'd finished 5th we'd have won a hell of a lot more games, which would have been a much more enjoyable season as a fan.  

The target of "making the playoffs" is a complete cop out - finishing 6th and in the bottom half is not a good season.  We need to aim a lot higher, we need a plan for how we're going to win the competition because in a 10 team salary capped league if you're not trying to win why are you even competing?  There is a lack of ambition on the pitch which is dragging the club down off it

This isn't about marquees either, it's about putting together a team with the AIM of winning the comp, not with the AIM of finishing 6th - the two are very different and you'll target different players.  

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/10004093/Wellington-Phoenix-boss-remains-upbeat

None can be visa spots, so Smeltz, Payne and Shermy?

 

A question for the statistically-minded then:
In all A-League seasons with playoffs (to date), what was the best playoff performance ever achieved by a team placed 6th at the end of the regular league rounds? In other words, which team was it and how far did they get?

If the answer is that the best anybody ever got was winning the first elimination round but no further, finishing sixth is still not good enough.

Off the top of my head, Jet (6th) beat GCU (3rd), and then went off to lose to us in the next round.

Brisbane did the same last year.

No one outside the top 3 has ever made a Grand Final. Personally I would say top 4 should be your goal every season, get that home play off game.

Out of interest, how do you measure ambition?

Aim for the top and try to suceed there. I know the PC thing is "To take part" but we want to adopt the "We desperately want to win this competition" mentality.  almost a "Take no prisoners" mentality. You want to be a winner, 2nd is not an alternative.

I think you missed my point. I don't think anyone at the club has a long term plan to consistently finish no better than 5th or 6th, and I don't think anyone is under the illusion that the way to win the competition is by squeaking in to 6th and then having a dream run in the post season. Everyone knows full well that you don't win shit by finishing in 6th.

I see a goal of making the playoffs more as a way of measuring how we're tracking towards winning the title. Merrick and Welnix have said before that that's the goal, and I genuinely believe them. I think there's definitely room for fair criticism about how they're going about that and they certainly haven't gotten everything right so far, but I think they're on the right track and although some things might be missing, I don't think ambition is one of them.

I guess I'm just a lot less pessimistic than a lot on here seem to be. Yes the season overall was pretty rubbish, but at times this season we played some great football. If we'd have kept playing the way we played through that purple patch mid season I think we would have won the league. On top of that we've got stable and committed owners and a coach who I have a fair amount of confidence in. Also, not sure if you heard the news this week but we're playing f*cking West Ham in two months. F*cking West Ham! Whatever fair gripe you might have with the owners, I don't think they can be accused of having a lack of ambition.

Edited just for formatting. Y'all don't want to see my Sunday night rants in a single paragraph do you now.