Albert Riera - El Wellington Phoenix FC until 2016/17

Yeh agreed, hopefully in reality things are further down the track than this.

I blame Smithy.

sigh  -   sad face thingy

Wow. Guess we get to see what the rest of the squad has. Another replacement player perhaps? Dare I say it, but do you look at a Jake Butler (and I am against it but it's a potential talking point) to try help out? 

Personally, I'd get Chris James over. For 10 weeks, you have nothing to lose and you see if he could fit in and do a job. If not, at least you then know for sure (or perhaps...... *fuck* Clapham) I know Ernie has said no but he got Krishna in to show what he can do and now he knows for sure that Krishna is not good enough.

Ahh spew!

EVERYONE: Put away your "Weekend at Ernie's" tees. 

Could be good for him.At least he would be in the shop window

Depressing news.  But still COYN

I'm really sad about that, he is a great player and really controlled out midfield.

Be interesting in what Merrick does.

In Ernie, we trust.

slutted

Huge blow. Be interesting to see what Ernie does. Looks like weakest A league for yonks to me, and winning the whole thing won't have been ruled out. So many out of form sides, and we look good enough to finish 3rd or 2nd in round robin. Need a stronger bench though to handle this injury toll, and suspensions during a playoff run.

Fair point Chopah. That's probably my bias coming through. I think he is/will be a failure. I kinda think Boxeys comment on the pod reflects what I feel when he said that 'Krishna tends to be a flat track bully and if pace is your strength at ASBP level, you are going to need more than that at HAL'

I think for a 10 week gig, Ernie can afford to take punts because 10 weeks is enough to show a players wares without taking a full season roster spot risk/trial. He also has the developing Ridenton, Hicks and worst case more game time for developing Rufer or Leo to do a job. James, Clapham and Butler would be the 3 I would look at with Butler being the wrong age but more Riera's position. If he brings in James and he knocks it out of the park, then you consider him for a full spot next year but at least then you can say 'I know that his guy will/won't work at this level' much like we are finding out with Krishna.

Riera';s loss is a huge huge blow to our chances this season. Still think we will make the playoffs but without Riera the job to win big playoff games against top sides has suddenly got a lot harder. Riera was the glue that made our midfield one of the best in the A-league. A lot will depend how well Lia adapts to doing the "Riera role". Things did not look that great against the Jets.....our back four were put under considerably more pressure than they have had for most of the season. Riera normally does a brilliant job mopping up and covering  back there. 

Just as an aside my sports physo friend said he was not surprised that Riera blew his groin adductors. He came in early season from amateur football and would not have had the preseason pro conditioning that the rest of the squad had. He had early groin tightness and with the heavy workload(especially around Xmas) it was highly likely that the muscle would blowout at some point.

There's a good possibility he'll be back for the playoffs - he's out for 8-9 weeks according to Merrick

Fuck

Amazing how wrong you two were, and how much you would give for him to be fit again right now.

That gif is amazing btw Buffy. 

Oh I think I did say that James and Clapham are not the kind of players that he is looking for, but then by the same token, the kind of player he needs is not really available, and if they are, not really 'starting' quality.

So what do you do? Hence why I threw out those names because you wont find a starter so try a guy that you are not sure if he would work or not. Again, its not a season long squad spot.

Mulligan is in much the same vein as James in a deep lying distributer. Ivan is not the worst call you would ever hear but I suspect that's a definite no because ACFC have their thing in Fiji shortly so they won't agree to that (International Transfer rules etc) and ACFC pay Ivan a lot more money tax free.

Riera officially our most difficult player to replace

can't be long to go now can it

A few more weeks by the looks of it.

So signed for another 2 years. Not bad. One would suspect thats come at an upgraded price.

Now I feel better about spending on that t-shirt 

("Viva la Rieralucion!")

Fudgeing awesome

very very awesome.  Im stoked!!  Riera's presence for the next two years will positively impact on how squad shapes over that time...

Just need Brockie to follow....

Why?

Wow that is great news. Hopefully his experience and style will rub of on the younger guys. Good scenario.

Check out an interesting discussion on that topic, Gordinho, under the "Ernie Merrick" thread.