2015/16 Transfer Speculation

Should have trialled John Irving IMO.

Justin Gulley got signed on a one year contract. Congrats!

Link

Gulley chat in the Contracted Players thread please, as he's now a signed player and therefore it's not speculation.

So we're signing Dylan Fox tomorrow? 20 year old centre back?

Unless he's now holding out for more...

Obviously the experience we need to replace Dura.

yeah that's a left field signing

especially as it strikes me as knee jerk, and wasn't Ernie holding a spot for January?

If he's any good he'll be thrown right in there.

Na, I read he plays centrally.

Yeah..so much for holding a spot..?!

I guess Dura's niggle is worse than first thought (he went into the game under a cloud). Siggy has niggles too.

Recruitment this off season has been very poor. My concern is that it was partly caused by the licence running out and no signs that wel'll actually get a renewal?

Don't think it has anything to do with that - more likely due to a lack of quality players in the market/other teams snapping them up before us.

I disagree. We're obviously looking to sign people with potential, grow them into better players and sell them on, or keep them on the books at a lower price. See: Appiah, Powell most of the Kiwis...

Surely we could have signed a half decent CB or kept Boxall?

There were quite a few good squad players available this off season and we didn't sign a single one of them. I know we only had one import spot, and I am happy with Jeffrey (based on his CV, not so much on what he showed yesterday but I know he isn't match fit yet), but we could certainly have signed at least one of these players with A-League experience.

Im thinking that after yesterdays performance ernie has some work to do with sorting striking options out..we were about as effective as a chocolate teapot in front of gold

Dome said  that the nix tried very hard to keep Boxall but just couldn't offer the same sort of money as super sport.

Big question right now is, is he better cover at CB than Muscat? If the answer is no then we obviously shouldn't go near him, but we desperately need another option right now.

Well, as Manny isn't a CB, and this Fox fella is, it's a start. 

Siggy's got an injury cloud hanging over him too, we're at the beggars can't be choosers stage. Just a shame that we've started addressing this as the season was starting rather than trying to do something about this 3-4 months ago.

A shame???

It's criminal.

Some people are trying to argue that our recruitment has not been very poor because "we held onto most of last year's starting lineup". Wow. Such achievement, much victory. 

Reliance on two crocked, superannuated CBs = shark season to come.

Fair enough on that. Still doesn't explain why we didn't sign any other A-league CB, and there were quite a few available between those who came off contract and those who freed themselves amid salary cap breaches, payment disputes etc...

I know I wasn't the only one saying it, but this was two weeks ago. Only took half a game.

Who were all these CBs? I remember Zach Anderson being available but went with previous coach GA at Sydney, otherwise it is slim pickings. 

So is Manny at CB and Doyle at LB better than new guy at CB and Manny at LB? I thought Manny had a good game at FB yesterday, Doyle still not convincing me to start.

Do we know for a fact that we didn't try to do something about it months ago? Or are we just guessing that Ernie thought that he didn't need CB cover and didn't bother looking at other players? 

I thought Doyle was actually better than Manny; Manny got caught out of position so many times - he doesn't have the pace to track back anymore. Doyle seemed like he played a bit deeper and didn't get caught out as much.

I'd actually agree with that. Manny also gives away the ball to opposition way too much for a defender. 

TBH he really hasn't been that great for a while now. He's been a great stalwart for the club, but might have to start shifting to a bench role soon?

We should have been looking to replace Manny, Lia, Durante and Ben. Unfortunately age tends to creep up on footballs and it started to show last season. All far too slow.

Durante and Sigmund were great last season. Both players had their best seasons in a while. In saying that, I think we should have looked to bring in another centre back. We could be facing a situation next season or the one after where we have to bring in two new centre backs. Ideally, we would give a youngish player a year on the bench to develop. If we don't want to sign a young centre back and develop them then that means we are going to have to use visa spots on a centre back which would dminish our depth in midfield. 

Dylan Fox been signed for 2 years so you must never mention his name in this thread again. Speculation ovah 4 reals

Maybe there just wasn't a good one out there who wanted to packup and move all the way to NZ to a club that might not be around in six months - remember we signed Adams and released hi m and tried to keep Boxall]. I personally think we should be looking at Musa again.

Hopefully Roy will be a kiwi by then freeing one of those spots.

is that ever going to happen? Seems like we've been talking about that for years. Last thing I read made it seem like it was a long way off. 

Thank God we didn't get rid of Boxall

I am hoping this is tongue in cheek.... However the argument that we were silly to let Boxall go has been done to death. And the fact that the Club has been open in saying they did not want him to go but could not pay him the amount that SuperSport that we offereing...

As the Disney song goes

Let it go!!!!!

Trivia:  Apparently I was the last person on earth who didn't know who Elsa was (in relation to the "Let It Go" song.