2015/16 Transfer Speculation

"We've got two or three players in mind, but we're going for our first choice and trying to get him over the line."

I like hearing this a lot.

based on tonight's performance we really need a new CB in his early/mid 20s. If we can have 2 marquees why not one for the back as well as one for the front.

Money, has to be a kiwi or ausy as well.

do you want him to have any particular ethnic background or boot colour preference?

I want an Azerbaijani. They seem tough.

Never understood the argument that other teams spending more money is a bad thing for the league.  League needs to keep improving if the TV deal is to keep getting bigger and bigger

I heard we're signing Pixie off Shortland Street.

You get into a spending race in order to be competitive and end up with clubs getting into financial strife.

Clubs are competitive and are inclined to take the gamble of taking on debt to finance a run for the title with the hope that that increases attendance and sponsorship.

slowly becoming convinced that our striker fell in love with Perth on the way to Wellington.

My point is that whilst there are issues around the sustainability of clubs in the smaller cities/markets (and Brisbane), creating a need or perception of clubs to spend more will further erode the viability of those clubs. The end result will be an equivalent of the EPL where larger teams in bigger markets can (and do) generate increasingly more revenue and spend it on getting better players (or, keeping existing ones). This is great in and of itself but it doesn't create a competitive league, particularly in a market the size of Australia, and particularly where you do not have the depth of clubs willing and able (sometimes questionably) to step into the league when another club fails (either on or off the field).

You will always have imbalance in clubs and budgets - however, the FFA's immediate focus (in my opinion) should be to create a sustainable competition. And when we can go a few years with some stable clubs (and owners), then look to grow.

The "argument" that we're missing out on players to the MLS/J-league/CSL, etc to me is a red herring. We can't compete with them as a general rule (yet). The marquee spot in most instances has been used to get the highest paid player outside the cap - that's great, but with a few exceptions (Del Piero, Fowler, Heskey, VilOla) isn't used in the intent in which it was created. ie: to attract players who would put bums on seats. The current international marquee players are good players - but they're hardly household names that'll bring in a thousand or two per game.

Instead of lifting the ceiling which the rule changes do, make the marquee rules tighter, attract the right player/s as was the original intent and get them spread around the league - so everyone wins. Especially the league, as a whole.

Yes, the league needs to keep improving. Not just Mel/Syd - particularly whilst others seemingly struggle to sustain themselves. Lift those at the bottom up, and the league will improve... then lift the ceiling a little, rinse, and repeat.

Not under the new rules. Both marquees can be imports. This assumes we haven't bunged someone into one of those spots already.

Though we only have one import spot open, so we can only have one import marquee anyway.

...unless we promote an existing import to be a marquee, freeing up cap elsewhere...

Alex Wilkinson is reportedly looking at Sydney... could we snatch him to be part of our back 3?

Valeo is right though.  That still won't open an import slot.  My bad.

We only have one import slot which is ear marked for a striker, a marquee CB would have to be a Kiwi or an Ausy.

...unless we make Roly an import marquee AND play him at CB... (not advocating that though)

I'm not so worried about the salary cap.

We will always be a bit of an underdog in this league and that's fine. After all, nobody expected Daniel LaRusso to win the All-Valley Karate Tournament - with only a couple of months training and having to defeat several dirty cheating bastard Cobra Kai along the way - but he still did it.

So yeah...

Go the mighty ducks.

that's what I think.  The salary cap has basically been voluntary for quite a while anyway

On transfers/suad make-up in general, we've lost an awful lot of experience over the last little while.  Brockie, Cunningham, Griffiths and Burns all gone plus Boxall.  Not really been any replacement so far

In reality, we are along way off being the EPL. What European league has been more even than our league over the past 10 years? It's a tough balancing act but I think these new rules are okay by and large. Currently, A-League clubs are given money by the FFA which allows them to pay for 100% of the salary cap. If teams want to have marquees or any of the other stuff I'm sure they have to check it with the FFA. I doubt the FFA is going to allow clubs struggling to survive to go out and spend up large unless they know where that money is coming from. All clubs should be spending the salary cap and then those ones that are successful and profitable should be able to go out and spend a bit more. 

Most of the clubs failing in the league are doing so because of mismanagement and not because they can't keep up with wage demands..

Yeah, this is what worries me. I still think we need two experienced players to come in.

It wasn't that long ago that the Jets had Heskey...

Yep as I said earlier its 28 goals, and some very importangt goals, fringe players like Boyd, Hicks,and Cunningham have all come on and won us games.

Did Heskey make a difference to the sustainability of Newcastle? Maybe he did. My impression was that Newcastle's problems were caused by Tinkler losing a lot of money very quickly and not because they spent too much on wages.

I was under the impression that Tinkler's financial issues had been around for quite a while. Could be wrong though.

Newcastle has 10k+ members, surely they should be profitable with fans + sponsorship.

The problem is that they were always sponsored by tinkler companies like Hunter Ports that likely didn't pay up.

Also, of those 10K+ members a significant number of them are league fans.

You bought a memebership and the Knights and Jets memeberships were a package deal - you got both.

So it doesn't automatically follow that there are 10K+ members interested in attanding Jets games.

Get in!!! Start your speculation engines gentleman!

Sources: Phoenix get their man. Striker a done deal. Confirmation pending medical after arrival in Wellington. Likely next week.

— Simon Hampton (@SimonHampton9) August 12, 2015

Another bloody week to wait!

Exciting stuff; would be nice to get a hint as to nationality. I'm guessing Dutch. 

I'm still guessing Jeffrey Sarpong. His trial was recently terminated with Blackburn. (End of July-ish)

Also followed by Roly on twitter.

Hopefully they anounce him before he arrives.

Can't wait to arrive in Wellington on Monday. Going to be a great season!

Didn't realise it was a combined Knights and Jets membership. Also, iirc tickets to Jets games were (are?) half the price of other teams.

Yays!

I hope the new signing gets mugged by a crazy lady on Courtney Place upon their arrival.

That sort of welcome had worked for us in the past!!!

...bit of a religious nutter.  Not that there is anything wrong with that but might make him a challenging fit socially.