2015/16 Transfer Speculation

Who's his competition? Certainly more disappointing than Elrich and Hernandez thus far, can't think of anyone else in the same bracket.

I don't think you can argue the "he is not fit" anymore. He has been here 3-4 months (?) If thats not long enough to get fit then something is wrong.

Some times we just get it wrong. I can't say I've really had any emotion on Sarpong good or bad other than give him time. Now he has had 9 games and has no helped advance the cause of the Phoenix.

Unfortunately, time is no longer on his side and I would have no issue if they cut him loose and finding a replacement.

I am still willing to wait for Sarpong to click in, I'd be very surprised if Ernie gave up on him yet.

You are right. He has been patient with Roy and look what happened

Burns knew the grounds, the competition and the players and the coach

saw Sarpong happy as larry in his phoenix gear talking on his phone and skipping through town yesterday. didn't look too sad about things to me. for some crazy reason I still believe

He might have just received a call from his agent

Man United are looking for a proven goal scorer, so too are Chelsea.

Big difference though was that Roy was already a proven goal scorer.  Sarpong has never been that.

I still have hopes for Sarpong, he is still reasonably young (he has 5+ seasons left in him all going well), if it takes him a season to settle but then he has 3+ good seasons for us I think everyone would wonder why the Angst. I'm just putting my trust in Ernie knowing the player and the team to do what's best, if he can see Sarpong building I am happy to sit back and wait.

Well he has been a bench player and we have announced we are in the market for a player in his position.

Both of those last 2 statements are true.

I think Ernies track record does say 'trust him' but then why say 'The club are going to actively look for a striker in the window'

Knowing the elements (it has to be Kiwi or AU person or they release Sarpong and get a new person in) I think its an odd statement to make knowing that there is probably going to be no Kiwi strikers, it needs to be a decent AU man which are not common or its the other option....

Unless Ernie knows about an AU player coming off a contract somewhere abroad. 

This is assuming other (AU) clubs are not looking for an extra striker at this point (January 2016 window).

I would think Ernie and any good club is always on the look out for a good striker

Adam Taggart on loan? Been on loan at Dundee and goes back in Jan unless another club wants him on loan.

You think he just made the statement to put a bit of pressure on the current players?

He got Joel Gr last season despite us having Burns

Medic!!

Posted the full list of off contract players in the A-League transfer thread

There are a few young CB's and fullbacks off contract this season:

Jordan Elsey
Dylan McGowan
Daniel Bowles
James Donachie
Jake McGing
Connor Chapman
Nicholas Ansell
Giancarlo Gallifuoco
Lachlan Jackson
Alex Grant
Zach Anderson
Jacob Tratt
Daniel Alessi
Shayne D’Cunha

Craig Goodwin
Jack Hingert
Jack Clisby
Dylan Murnane
Josh Risdon
Marc Warren
Alex Gersbach
Riley Woodcock

Marc Warren for Aus Marquee

Sooo... Taylor Regan?

We should be working hard to sign Donachie for next season.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/football/a-league/teams/brisbane/brisbane-roar-wait-on-james-donachie-to-commit-future-after-contract-blunder/news-story/ce7ff4fa69d81d903df24e98f89f4395

Been impressed with Alex Gersbach so far this season as an attacking fullback. Still forget he's 18. 

Chapman and Donachie are pretty much the same player to me but could be decent pickups. 

Still feel we need a mid to late 20s CB with strong leadership qualities, now with Siggie retiring and Dura with only a season or 2 left. 

#bringbackboxall

Sarpong needs to go. Whatever the cost

Bring back Kenny

I saw more in a Solomon island we had once then Sarpong. Hugely disappointing 

To be fair, Totori was too wayward and reckless with the ball to succeed at this level.

However, Sarpong appears to be overwhelmed by the quality of passing and marking in the A-League.... surely not a good sign.

Our best chances moving forward might be to push for an early naturalisation for Roy Krishna, freeing up a visa spot ASAP.

As much as I want or wanted Jeff to succeed, he hasn't and to be honest, I think we have seen the best he has got. Ive seen Patrick do better. Jeff has decent pace and close ball control and nothing else. It is really beginning to frustrate me because we get a decent break and it peters out into nothing.

I thought Saprong looked our best attacking outlet in the first half in what was a dour 45. He also has played some very good attacking balls that have not been capitalised on.

For example roly's missed one on one last week, because of the miss, no one went back to look at the quality of the pass.

The thing with Sarpong is that he was picked in the squad to score goals. Plenty of us were skeptical that a player with 9 league goals in 150 games would suddenly turn goal scorer because he is playing at a lower level. What we have learned about Sarpong is that he looks nothing like a goal scorer. Even if Sarpong turned himself into a decent attacking player, what we really need is goals. 

Currently we have scored 16 goals in 11 games. That actually is more than most teams in the league. Krishna has 7, Roly has 3, McGlinchey has 2 with a whole host of others on 1 goal. Weemac never scores too many but I think Roly could score a lot more. Regardless, we seem to be quite reliant on Krishna. I think all the top teams have multiple goal scoring threats. If they don't have them on the pitch, they cn bring them on off the bench. We have some bench players who can provide impact but they don't look like getting late goals. 

I think my point is that if Sarpong is only going to be a good midfield player then surely he is surplus to requirements? We already have Roly, A-Rod and Riera in the midfield. Can we justify having 4 foreign players in the midfield, when we need extra defenders which re hard to find in Australia/New Zealand? Sarpong only justifies his place if he is bagging A LOT of assists or about 10 goals a season. If he can't do either of these things then you have to move him on. The professional envinronment means you only get so many chances.

Sarpong shows signs of not fitting our system. And perhaps of not having the desire or having settled or getting that break through goal. Thought he could have had 3 assists and a goal early on. Technically though it's obvious he has plenty of genuine football class. 

On the other hand, Kenny, Roy and even Blake Powell seem to have much more of a nose for goal.

Edit: agree with most of the post above. Feel the front positions could be a bit re-jigged to fit him in somewhere, as wherever we have tried him so far hasn't produced the best. However, on that game he produced much more than Roly for example. It was not a free flowing game.

Roly scored one against Adelaide as a long-range screamer and one against Victory as a lucky rebound off Roy. I do not remember the third one. The point is that Roly is predominantly an attacking mid and not really a natural striker in the mould of Burns or Ifill, although he resembles them in his twists and turns a lot. In contrast, Sarpong is expected to be a striker but is so far not delivering in that department nor looking like he would assert himself over the opposition teams. On the park right now he reminds me somewhat of Brockie but without JB's nose for the unexpected goal scoring opportunity.

I was looking at situations like the one on one last week. I would expect most players to at least get a shot away there. Getting run down by the defender like that was disappointing. I think Roly at his best could score a few more. Sarpong is expected to score plenty but I just don't believe he has the ability to do that at this level.