Nix Transfer Speculation 2019-20

Good news Pierre. I have passed on your offer to cover the costs of a second marquee player's salary to the owners. I'm sure they will be in touch, shouldn't be more than half a million dollars per season.

shark - sorry I forgot where he'd come from.....therefore Rojas will be at best a bench player - maybe challenging Sotirio? But I can't see it as I suspect Rojas' pace had probably dropped off and whilst his skill on the ball might be better the Sotirio's I don't see him wanting to ride the pine and bide his time to make the first team.

I think we already have a potential league winning team, talay is also focussed on building for the future which waine, mccowatt and suttopn fulfill - Rojas doesn't.

Marco would literally waltz into this side. He's coming back from a top division in Europe against guys who are still fighting to get to become consistent A-league players.

Front four with Davila, Ball, Hooper, and Marco would be the best attacking quartet in the league by some margin.

Not every Second Coming ends in a blissful fulfillment

reprising my role yet again - see Hooper confirmation a while back.

Source within the playing group has confirmed Rojas is very much on. Arriving in Welly this week.

Signing Burns the second time was a mistake - and I said so at the time. It was obvious he was done as a serious professional player, and had been for some time. Marco isn't.

Fair enough.  They are very different players at the time of their (potential) returns. I also have no issue with Rojas quality as a player especially following the Dutch and Danish top division appearances.  I only have an issue with whether we need to spend money on Rojas rather than on any other position. And in the end I would be happy to sign him up just to prevent him from returning to any Melbourne club.

top division in Europe - where he has done very little with limited minutes, he'd be fighting for a spot against five players three are imports who are performing better than expected (Hooper. Ball and Davila) and two Aussies who are also performing better than expected (Sotirio and Piscopo). Excluding injuries I can't see Rojas getting a start - he certainly wouldn't be bumping any of those 5 to the bench as soon as he walked into the side.

He was very much a starter in Denmark. Piscopo and Sotirio are nowhere near his quality, unless Marco's both legs are broken there is no way either of them starts before him - and even then it's probably a close call. I mean, Marco was Johny Warren medal winner at the age where Piscopo is just starting to make starts in the league. Enough said.

For me Rojas over Sotirio any day of the week. And Sotirio has been getting plenty of starts.

Piscopo and McCowatt showing lots of potential though. But they both also need game time if we want them to step up.

But Rojas is not going to happen. Ufuk made that pretty clear.

https://twitter.com/pineyzb/status/1216855913836900352

From Ufak Talay interview this morning:

Pine: "There's a bit of speculation around about the Phoenix and Marco Rojas. Are you in for Marco Rojas?"

Talay: "No, we're not, no. Not at all."

What is the goal of anonymous trolls trying to get our hopes up?

Well its a shame if we havent put in an offer. We havent been this complete for a while and now would be a good time to throw everything at it. 

in terms of technical ability he's been one of the best players in Scandinavia and he certainly hasn't had limited minutes. Any benchings/subs he's had are because he was being moulded into a CAM at Sonderjyske as the winger roles were very different to Rojas' playstyle. He would absolutely shark into the starting lineup of every single A-League side

Easy, because it creates more conversation and debate. Exactly what they would hope for.

I can't believe there is an argument going on in here whether Rojas is good enough to play for the Phoenix.

As good as Sotirio has been, if you think he's better than Rojas you really need to watch more football.

I'd give my right arm to have him, however I think it's terribly unlikely.

The Fever has already tried that, hasn't worked out yet. Fingers crossed (except 2nd Best, he can't).

We've offered two right arms over the last month. No joy.

City : We'd like to pay you this much

Rojas, R: Yeah, Nah

Marco to Phoenix!

City: The Phoenix are two points behind us and in form now and they are willing to pay Rojas

Rojas, R answers phone.

City: How much did you want again?

he may well be good enough - but I reckon he'd be more of a disruptive influence to the squad - he'll always be the type that wants more than he's worth....

Exactly. Johnny Warren medallists both.

Rojas since his 2nd spell at Victory, has really just been a bit player at middling clubs in Netherlands and Denmark. Who knows why. In his very infrequent AWs games he hasn't shone either. He will have lost some pace since he was last in the A League, though his ball skills will still be high level, and miles better than say Sotiro.

But is he really what the Nix need? Do the owners want to spend a heap of coin on him for half a season?

I'd rather Talay played youngsters like Piscopo for rest of the season. Sure it's only the Thailand U23s, but looks like Piscopo was on fire for the Olyroos last game. If he can have a strong finish to the A League season, garner some overseas interest, and end up being sold by Welnix for some nice coin - all power to the owners.

exactly my point.

Really? Burns who literally had one exceptional season in the A-league, and hardly played at all - certainly didn't score any goals -when he went away before coming back in his 30s and clearly done as a serious player.

On the other hand you have one of the best ever players in this league, who's coming back from a full season in the Danish top flight, at the ripe old age of 28. The same player who came back to this league in 2016 after a tough spell in Europe, who had people similarly saying that he wasn't good enough anymore, and he pissed through the league like it was under 16s.

I mean, at Piscopo's age Marco was a Johnny Warren medal winner, how are we even comparing the two? Honestly if by some miracle Messi ever expressed interest in coming here, there'd be people sating 'nah, he's lost his pace, Sotirio is quicker and what we really need right now'.

Stand corrected. Rojas did start 15 of 19 games for SønderjyskE, in first half of this Danish season. And they did sound disappointed that he decided to leave. Still this is a club sitting a pretty lowly 11th on the table.

Personally I'd just rather, that a promising player like Piscopo wasn't likely pushed to the sidelines by bringing in Rojas for half a season. No doubt some of Talay's success in attracting some of Australia's best young talent (like Wilson's recent signing), is the evidence that he gives young players an opportunity. That favourable view could be compromised somewhat by signing Rojas stopgap.

Not sure why you bother EL G some just seem unable to see things,not sure why some are hinting he could be disruptive to the team.Dont think i have seen where that has been an issue in the past.See no reason he cant carve up in the A league again just as he has done in his previous stints.Rather have him with us than against us.What makes people think he only wants to sign for 6 months.

Dosnt matter anyway Talay reckons its not happening.

personally I'm still bitter that he left us the way he did.....

Why? Piscopo is 21, it won't kill him to sit on the bench for a while. He's hardly a guaranteed starter anyway, it's not like he's proven that he's a better option than either McCowatt or Sotirio. 

Bring Marco in, and this team probably becomes the favourite for the title. Who in their right mind would say that a club shouldn't do something that would give them a notable advantage over everyone else in the league? Winning the league would be way more important for the club, the owners, the fans, the players, and football in this country than getting $350k for Piscopo from some Serie B team in two years' time.

Obviously, there's significant obstacles in potentially getting Marco back here (basically, $$$), but to say that it isn't even worth considering it is just mind-boggling to me.

I think it's the desire. Kosta's return was less than hoped, mostly down to the team situation. We've got a good thing going right now. We're on a great run. Marco hasn't shown a great desire to be here- he's been to Victory twice and then has tried to go to city. Some here assume that showing this interest in us is a play towards city.  

I'd be wary.

But lets see. I'm sure we'll find out soon. As our experience with Kosta and Marco showed it's wrong to play better more experienced players ahead of youth players (#sarc) so who knows.

We've got a good balance, if Marco can join us sure. 

It's mind boggling that we are even debating whether Rojas should come back to the Nix or not. The guy is one of the best players the A-League has ever seen, and has already proved it on two separate occasions. It's worth noting that SønderjyskE wanted to keep him, but the main issue they had with the money he was after, was due to degradation of pitches in the middle of winter not (at all) suiting Marco's style of play. He's not going to have that issue in an Aussie/NZ summer.

He's a kiwi, doesn't take up a foreigner spot, plays in a position where we are a little weak and fits the style of play Uffie has the team playing. Would be a huge boost to the youngsters, particularly the NZ players who probably all looked up to Rojas as the first young Kiwi to really make a name for himself from the Nix. I've never read any indication he would be a disruptive influence in the dressing room, the only negative personality trait he seems to have is an ambition that possibly doesn't quite match his talent - but the Nix aren't the old Nix any more.

Word is he's all but confirmed for the Victory, a three year 1.5 million deal.  Was fun to speculate but it was never really likely. 

Have to agree; I'd love to see Marco back.

The fact is, though, we don't have the $$ and he left us in the first place for a reason - he won't be back.

I do not for a moment believe anyone here (including me) said that Rojas is not a great player - both in terms of his skills and other attributes like visa issues.  All we were flagging were questions of his suitability for this team at this point and what it would take for us to have him on the park. These are two totally separate issues. Otherwise you would not have Talay saying that he is not pursuing Rojas. I agree with his take on the matter, although his reasons might be different than mine!

And it's not happening. Victory are releasing two players and signing Rojas. https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/teams/melbourne-victory/aleague-transfer-news-marco-rojas-news/news-story/7b89ae7c179e1b99fbc567248bec6421

Do we have another match against the Vucktree this year? Looking forward to Libby skinning Marco

Yip, got them at home!

Releasing 2 defenders to fund Rojas return. Think the problem with Victory isnt in the front 3 id think its more at the back..

Good to see Rock-Arse back in the league

Maybe we should have gotten Rojas as Piscopo always choses country over club weather it be micky mouse games etc.

Only Sydney, Perth, and the Nix have conceded fewer non-penalty goals. while five teams have scored more non-penalty goals. Signing Rojas and trying to get more attacking output might be more likely to work than trying to turn a good defensive record into a great one.