Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

TBF probably looked better than any of our other LB cover in recent years.

I think 1 December is when off contract players can be approached. Which is probably why these Roly to City rumours have surfaced recently. 

Newshub reporting he will go to City

How! Seriously how can they afford him under the cap? Also sad he is leaving.

Im not against Parkhouse being re-signed but his efforts have hardly stood out to the point other clubs are knocking down his door, so I would have thought we could have waited 2-3 weeks until we have a new coach and have him make the call myself.

Sauce?

It’s expected that the grant distributed to each club — currently $2.5m per year — will rise substantially, with players guaranteed to receive 30 per cent of any increase secured by Football Federation Australia from its broadcast partners from next season. But until exactly what that increase is known — and what the salary cap then rises by — players are being warned that contract talks for many will be put on hold until deep into this season.

It’s believed that under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, next year’s salary cap will rise from $2.55m to at least $2.8m — but could climb as high as $3.1m depending on what sort of deal FFA secures, most likely from a combined contract struck with Fox Sports and a free-to-air station.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/aleague-signing-frenzy-on-the-cards-as-players-wait-for-tv-deal/news-story/f305373f8b4c1740a5c4806271e7d92d

Combine the cap increase with Sorensen & Gameiro coming off contract along with Brattan + Caceres loans ending, they should have the space to add a quality player.

[Edit: oh and Colazo's loan expires & he is using a marque slot for City]

I heard Roly has similar traits to Carlos.

"There could also be two free import spots next season, with Alex Rodriguez off contract and Roly Bonevacia understood to be set to join former coach John van't Schip at Melbourne City next year."

Newshub

I'd be quite comfortable swapping Roly for Gameiro :)

He's got worse knees than Pantelis

While that's quite true, he's had a hell of a run of bad luck.  At some point you'd expect that will have to turn and assuming he hasn't lost a yard of pace as a result of his maladies, I'd be quite happy being a beneficiary of that.  He's a class player and one could certainly never accuse him of not giving 100% and having a fit Gameiro in our frontline could only be a good thing imho.

So these are the players off-contract end of season:

Roly BONEVACIA (f)
Tom DOYLE
Louis FENTON
Ben LITFIN (+1)
Alex RODRIGUEZ GORRIN (f)
Lewis ITALIANO
Vince LIA
Ryan LOWRY
Glen MOSS
Oliver SAIL (u21)
Jacob TRATT (+1)
Hamish WATSON

Of these, I'd make Watson, Tratt, Moss, Doyle & Roly our main re-signing priorities - multi-year deals where possible. If Roly doesn't stay, I just hope he moves to a different league & not score against us like everyone else does!

Players like Fenton, A-Rod & Lia have done their dash for us & are lower priorities IMO. We need to use A-Rod's spot on a Riera-like midfielder, so I can't see him being kept past this season.

Litfin, Lowry & Italiano are still up in the air. Lowry could prove to be decent defensive cover, but I can't see Litfin being kept. Whether Italiano stays really does depend on Sail's development.

Regardless of who goes where, it's pretty clear that it's our midfield that will need the most work. It will be interesting to see whether our new coach will go for 3 or 4 in the midfield & whether some players will see a revival of sorts (e.g. Fenton back on the wing). Lots of players coming off contract soon - hoping we can convince one to jump the ditch!

Signing Parkhouse makes absolutely no sense to me. Can someone explain?

He's been painfully average and is plainly not a defender. He's not a better winger than what we've got; I'd even have one of our young players in there instead of him (i.e. Rogerson)

Why are we signing players before we sign a coach?

Have you not seen his highlights 

Is a new 2 year contract mean on top of his existing 1 year, or this year plus next year?

Makes me wonder if we have a coach (unannounced)

Ah, thank god we've got a corner specialist.

EXPIRES END OF 2016/17:

Roly BONEVACIA (f) 
Tom DOYLE
Louis FENTON
Lewis ITALIANO
Vince LIA
Ben LITFIN (+1)
Ryan LOWRY
Glen MOSS
Alex RODRIGUEZ GORRIN (f)
Oliver SAIL (u21)
Jacob TRATT (+1)
Hamish WATSON

EXPIRES END OF 2017/18:

Andrew DURANTE
Gui FINKLER (f)
Roy KRISHNA (f)
James McGARRY (u21)
Michael McGLINCHEY 
Matthew RIDENTON
Logan ROGERSON (u21)
Marco ROSSI (+1) (f)
Alex RUFER

EXPIRES END OF 2018/19:

Kosta BARBAROUSES
Dylan FOX
Adam PARKHOUSE

One of the more underwhelming highlights packages I have seen for a winger.

Is that a piss take, or just the worlds worst highlights video, i genuinely can't tell

EXPIRES END OF 2016/17:

Roly BONEVACIA (f) 
Tom DOYLE
Louis FENTON
Lewis ITALIANO
Vince LIA
Ben LITFIN (+1)
Ryan LOWRY
Glen MOSS
Alex RODRIGUEZ GORRIN (f)
Oliver SAIL (u21)
Shane SMELTZ
Jacob TRATT (+1)
Hamish WATSON

EXPIRES END OF 2017/18:

Andrew DURANTE
Gui FINKLER (f)
Roy KRISHNA (f)
James McGARRY (u21)
Michael McGLINCHEY 
Matthew RIDENTON
Logan ROGERSON (u21)
Marco ROSSI (+1) (f)
Alex RUFER

EXPIRES END OF 2018/19:

Kosta BARBAROUSES
Dylan FOX
Adam PARKHOUSE

My lord. 

He was pretty effective on Saturday 

Parkhouse would not be a starter at any other A-League team (except CCM).

We shouldn't have re-signed him so quickly 

(Tratt, on the other hand - more please :-)

Happy to be proven wrong if Parkhouse keeps improving though!

EXPIRES END OF 2016/17:

Roly BONEVACIA (f) 
Louis FENTON
Lewis ITALIANO
Vince LIA
Ben LITFIN (+1)
Ryan LOWRY
Glen MOSS
Alex RODRIGUEZ GORRIN (f)
Oliver SAIL (u21)
Shane SMELTZ
Jacob TRATT (+1)
Hamish WATSON

EXPIRES END OF 2017/18:

Andrew DURANTE
Gui FINKLER (f)
Roy KRISHNA (f)
James McGARRY (u21)
Michael McGLINCHEY 
Matthew RIDENTON
Logan ROGERSON (u21)
Marco ROSSI (+1) (f)
Alex RUFER

EXPIRES END OF 2018/19:

Kosta BARBAROUSES
Tom DOYLE
Dylan FOX
Adam PARKHOUSE

3 signings without a manager...

Yep

Imagine what can happen with a manager!

Nepotism  

Ben Litfin returns home to Queensland https://t.co/wuxf3ZsNTn pic.twitter.com/yt6fpbKZ7Y

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) January 15, 2017

Never good enough and blocked the way for Rogersen, one of our own. What a point less signing that was

Bit of a victim of NZf regs that place restrictions on the number of over 20yo the reserve side can play. 

We knew about those when we signed him though

Well yes, but it's a bit pointless to only sign u20 year old.