Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

McGarry is in Portugal right now, wonder if he has singed for a team over there.

Karaoke?

FC Fado?

Thought he looked promising at the u20 WC so was a little disappointed he didn't get a go for the NIX as a left sided player over Parkhouse etc (although I know he likes to play more centrally).

Good on him if he does get signed, but then if he does, why didn't he play for us?

Attitude problem maybe.

Hmmmm now there's something we haven't had enough of in the last 12 months

Not bothered about losing him as a Nix player, in fact I'm quite happy for him to be playing overseas as it frees up a spot for another kiwi to turn pro.  Also being back under Ernie he may kick on even more and turn into a sold AW central/defensive midfielder, the one position we're a bit average at right now.

I think losing Ridenton is ridiculous; he is exactly the type of player we need to be keeping.

Do you think the FFA's main goal in briefing against us to pliable media is to poison the transfer market against us, so we can't recruit and have to give up?

Why would we be poison? It's pretty unusual for us to sign players past two seasons anyway and we have two seasons left.

AK9, Paracki and Ljujic want to stay from a comment on the Nix SoFIFA page. Should we keep at least one of them?

So we take chances on numerous young kiwi prospects and the moment one of them breaks through we should be happy to see them go to another A-League club? If they are still A-League level then we should do everything to hold onto them if we are taking ourselves seriously (including paying them what they would as a visa player at another club). If they grow to big for the league I can respect letting them go and wishing them the best however.

Ridenton should have been offered a new contract at New Years.

Has this been confirmed? Mind you, you can't blame him if he chooses a (edit) more ambitious club. 

Other than a single post has anything else regarding this reported move come through... I just can't see and Aussie team signing him... he doesn't have the ability to break a game open like Smeltz / Barbs or Rojas did.

Different player, but still.

Lose Ridenton and we keep all of them.

Not happy, we’re just content. At the end of the day Ridenton is still being developed, and there’s space to either improve on that position or develop even more Kiwis. We could do better than Ridenton if we bring an import into his role, which i feel is an important one - a Roly and Paracki duo wouldn’t be bad at all, for example

Call me weird but I’d be happy to keep Ljujic and Paracki on as imports - feel both will improve and get into their groove if we start next season well and carry momentum. We saw how good Paracki can be in a system that suits him at the beginning of the season, and if Ljujić can keep involved in a game and not drift out then he could be key for us - remember he’s only 24 and he’s definitely not as poor as some people like to make out. Kalu I wouldn’t keep on, we can do a lot better I reckon (sorry mate)

I just don't think Paracki and Ljujic are very good, to be honest - Ljujic is good if he has no responsibility to defend, but is too erratic to justify letting him not track back at all. Paracki - well, I think Cacace should take his spot.

I had thought that too until the game against City, where I guess he was playing for a contract but he tracked and defended really well in that game. To be honest I also like Paracki and AK as well, with regards to AK there's only a small handful of import strikers that have a better record. The vast majority, even in more recent seasons, have been relative failures. He's better than a foreign player lottery thats for sure. An A-League level keeper, a solid backline that starts more than 2 games in a row and a coach that can man-manage effectively and the Nix would be right up there, we have a better squad on paper than the Jets for example.

AK was just our latest version of Stein Huysegems. Lovely, immobile and knocked a few in. But in the end, just not good enough. 

Cacace is better at LB played very well there and it suits him, better to have a bigger man in the center of the pitch.

Paracki isn't exaclty big, and DM is Cacace's natural position. In my opinion, Cacace is too good to be wasted at LB.

With everything dependent on who we sign as coach, and what that individual can attract in the way of new/better talent. 

I don't think its like amateur football where you hide your worst player at LB; you saw how much of an impact he had in that City game both in defense and attack. Sure, if there are no other better candidates at DM and Doyle is ok at LB then fine - though if we have a decent option available to us at DM then Cacace is great at LB.

Think Cacace’s too young to define himself as just a DM. Since he’s only played at youth level so far, if he gets retrained as a LB in a professional environment (which i feel might already be happening under Greenie) there’s no reason he can’t become one

And the funny thing was that Stein left us because he thought he could do better.

NARRATOR: He couldn't do better

Still going strong in the 7th tier of Belgium, grabbing 22 goals this season!

Im not sure what is the most surprising piece of that statement... But i think it is the Belgium has 7 divisions bit. Incredible. 

Absolutely zero evidence to support this claim; and don't just come back at me with tall number sixes, like Yaya Toure or Segio Busquets.

Overall size is kind of irrelevant, but your holding player needs to battle for the ball a lot, so strength is vital. There aren't a lot of teenagers that can pull that off consistently against men.

How can people talk him up as a professional DM when he is yet to play any minutes in the role?

He looks a wrothy LB, sign him up there and by all means look to transition him through trainings and in friendlies etc and see if he has what is needed... but to talk him up ahead of Paracki based on his performances as a LB (7 in total) is nonsense.

weemac gone

WeeMac gone. https://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/news/mcglinchey-...

Never quite reached the form he did at CCM...

No big loss. Deadwood, as far as I'm concerned, especially for the supposed cash he was on.

That’s a fair amount of cash off the wage bill. 

I've no idea what happened to him as he was a good player for us.

be very interesting to see where he turns up and how he goes