2014/15 Transfer Speculation

Ohhhhhh Wee Mac. Please be true.

I think calling Neil Kilkenny an Australian player is a bit of a misnomer. He came to Brisbane with his parents as a child, and they all picked up and left for UK when he was 11 years old, and unlikely to ever come back.   He played for Eire under-18, for England under19, and then for Australia as adult, when Guus Hiddink picked him as a 21 year old backup player ahead of the 2006 WC. He has been a fringe player for the Socceroos at best. I do not think he made the 2010 WC Socceroos squad.

He has never played in the A-League and is now playing in League One (Preston??). His Aussie passport alone does not make him likely to ever play here, not while he has other options in UK and remains in his "prime" years (he's close to 29 now)..

You have a choice between Brockie, Boyd or Krishna as the other striker. Pick your poison.

I don't think there's room in our squad for WeeMac and Carlos...

Unless we do away with strikers and one of them plays as a false 9.

#Barcelonix #Phoenixelona

Re: Ifill's injury recovery...

I always thought Ifill was one of those players who isn't quick at all, but appears that he is, simply because of his clever timing when turning on the ball. He has that uncanny knack of turning at just the right time when the defender is shifting his weight from one side to the other, it buys him that extra half a yard and he's gone - without needing raw pace. 
If he recovers he'll still have that timing, I don't think it will matter if he's even a bit slower. 

However the worry is that when you turn like that, you do put a lot of pressure on your achilles, so it will need to have healed well and to have been a good job by the surgeon. 

If you gave Ifill the ball in space even in his first year at the phoenix, he wouldn't have accellerated away, he just never had that much speed in his time here. 

To provide a comparison, albeit a rough one, Suarez has the same kind of knack of turning at just the right time and leaving a defender for dead. Obviously Suarez is fast but even then, he's not as fast as other world class players of that ilk. 

Do we then think outside the square and deploy Ifill (if fit of course) as a Defensive Midfielder/Central Midfield holding role where he can distribute the ball around the park?

Soooooo apparently SST reporting that Wee Mac's agent has confirmed that we are the club that has made the approach to sign.

holy sh*tballs

forgive my ignorance - what is SST? Sunday Star Times?

has anyone got a link on this?

I don't always believe what SST says. But it would be awesome. 

Soccer Stoppage Time - Podcast/radio show in Australia. Always skeptical about their reports but it's interesting. No link sorry, heard it from a Nix fan in Aussie that I assumed listened to the broadcast.

EDIT: Sounds dodgy I know... heard it from a guy that I assume heard it from a skeptical source.

                       Moss

  Fenton-Sigmund-Durante-Muscat

              Riera-McGlinchey

  Krishna-Hernandez-Cunningham

                     Brockie

Just on that line-up.

I'd be hugely surprised if the incredible sulk was still here next year.

Yea fair call

Still looks good on paper though ;)

Would we get a transfer fee for Carlos?

To be honest i'd rather see Boyd starting ahead of Brockie. Boyd is growing and developing, while i don't think Brockie has much more to provide in Ernie's style of play

Don't think there are transfer fees within A-League?

No other A-League side will have him and outside the A-League you get a fee.

I would think we'll replace Stein.

Interesting. McGlinchey would be an upgrade on Carlos IMO when you look at the total package (e.g. defence, versatility, attitude).

If Carlos doesn't leave though we've put a lot of eggs into our midfield basket (though that did obviously needed upgrading) and I'd worry about our cap space left to get a decent striker. Because no, I don't want to rely on Brockie, Krishna & Boyd next season.

I guess time will tell.

Also it's a severe disadvantage to have too many all whites in the squad, would rather they were spread around the league.

However for the team McGlinchey would be great, any more rumors around Kosta?

A quick Google search comes up with a few results that suggest Kosta is under contract with the Victory for another two years and they would be mad to let him go without a transfer fee.

http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/kosta-barbarouses/profil/spieler_50200.html

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbournevictory/players/Kosta-Barbarouses/6532

I can confirm that the nix did make an offer for wee mac. Up to him to get release from ccm.

Carlos off, does this mean we have Wee Mac ??

A disappointed and grumpy farewell from me to what turned out to be Ricki Herbert's last major mistake.

Was there an announcement???

So as we were saying yesterday... We are looking to use the foreign spot for a striker.

If WeeMac falls through then they may look at foreign CAMs.

There is also a Greek based Aussie striker that the club are keeping tabs on.

Thanks Doloras, it looks very oficial!

At first I thought "Oh no, first Stein now Carlos....." but actually now I think it's not bad news - Carlos was good but not ideal, not anymore in any case, after his stint in India. Ernie's team rebuilding effort can now continue.

I reckon they wouldn't let Carlos go without a good reason, and it does not look like he jumped. I wonder if it is linked to the WeeMac rumours.

Ha. didn't know anything was on the cards for Carlos actually going when I posted that.

fluked.

Apostolos Giannou? Aussie Striker playing in Greece.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolos_Giannou

Marcos Flores any chance?He tweeted the other day that an A league club was interested in him.

please let us not swap a hernadez for a flores. that would not be any upgrade,

but wee mac would be great

He was out injured early this year and CCM decided to cut him loose. He might be just tweeting to up his asking price.
If I was asked to suggest a recently released injured striker that The 'Nix should sign for a reduced fee, I would answer "Paul Ifill", not "Marcos Flores".

I think that's a good decision.  I don't think he ever really justified his cost or talent, and he was not mobile enough for our system.  

When the chips were down in the last part of the season and we needed our big players to stand up he went completely missing.  I think the team culture thing is a misdirection - teams that win have good culture not the other way around.  But when you judge him on his contribution on the park it wasn't enough.  Interesting to see what happens to Kenny now. 

But we will need to keep working hard on a replacement for our top 2 goal scorers, and probably our 2 best performers….

It would be just our luck he now puts England to the sword in the world cup, clubs are going berserk for his signature and we are left wondering what happened to our 5 million dollar transfer fee. You read it here first

Cue everyone paying him out haha

As much as I like little Mac as he is a kiwi there is no way in hell he is worth this quoted 350k. Think we could buy much better quality with that kind of coin.

Carlos talk in other thread thanks