Official Signings(Re or otherwise).

No.  Not even slightly do i think that.

My ten cents re Totori is that it's exactly the type of risk some people say Ricki is never willing to take. Two of his biggest criticisms have been that he's too defensive-minded, and unwilling to take a risk. Signing Totori seems to answer to both of those things. 

Not saying that justifies the signing in and of itself, but I think it should be kept in mind when the knives start coming out for Ricki. 

Not as dissapointed as I was when I first saw the signing yesterday

IMO the pressure is right back on Ricki, as the squad he is forming is going to have to play a completely different style of football from previous seasons if they want to suceed.

This is going to be a major test on his coaching ability and how adapts his tactical skills

Not convinced about this at all.  Certainly don't think it is a signing that will push us into the top 2. Still hoping that the last import spot will be used, which is still a chance given Dome's comments were before the nations cup.

Hopefully he offers naother option particulary in our away games in the heat.

Not necessarily. You might be right but it depends how things were and are now to be financed. Was Terry running a marquee and local marquee? Durante and Ifill may not have had their wages under the cap under Terry but now they do, leaving less money than people suspect. I'm guessing there is probably about 10%-15% of the cap left.

I like the Totori signing. There are a lot of complaints here but people have to be realistic, after having had it announced that there would be no marquee players, which has nothing to do with Ricki nor Totori, there was never going to be a huge increase in squad quality unless there turn out to be some hidden gems with previously unknown players. I don't really even see this signing as a risk. Because he was effectively an amatuer he should be relatively cheap. If he doesn't step up then I think we still have a slight improvement up front than what we had last year, but he also has the potential to add quite a bit.

I wish people would differentiate between the signing and the salary cap policy.

Yes, come on Ricki-many-hats-Herbert, how will you get your core of good players to implement clever tactics? eh?

Public statement has been that we were not making use of any marquee jiggery-pokery under the old or current regime last season.

Therefore we should have a Daniel and Tim Brown sized surplus currently (assuming a Griffiths - Tsatallios straight salary swap for the two yoof spots).

Plus a huge saving on not needing so many head bandages.

Although the re-signings of Muscat etc will have probably eaten into some of the Brown salary.

Shoulda twigged when they started referencing moneyball!

ok these emoticons need some work- "laughin" "laughin" "laughin"

About the team- it actuallly looks faster and younger. We sign John McKain (DM/CB cover competition) and we're starting to look not half bad. Yeah, not going to happen I know. But.

Is Pantelis going to be able to offer anything? What's the news of his recovery?

I guess Myers may have played himself out of a signing in the Solomons. Who are the local players we are looking at signing? Hogg or Rowe? Mulligan for right back?

Might need to try and sign Keat if he's the future of the AWs mids- before he becomes a CB....

I've thought about this a bit now and I think that the angst is a bit over the top. The general theme seems to be "we should aim higher" (not just about the Totori signing but for the whole squad) but I can't help but keep thinking two things: should we? and can we?

In terms of the should aspect, just look at the Tards last season - great squad on paper, disgusted on the field. No aura at all. Signing high profile players doesn't necessarily lead to results. Also, look at Manny and Siggy who both came from amateur leagues and are now two of our best players. Even in the major leagues sometimes the best players are signed dirt cheap while big money signings can bomb.

Even if you disagree and say that we should aim higher, can we? I don't mean in terms of money (although that's obvioulsy a factor as well) but in terms of appeal to players. Any Aussie player who gets offered similar money by another A League club will probably stay in Australia, while its hard enough to get guys from Europe to come down here for a trial. We might harp on about the lifestyle here but Wellington is a small city in the most isolated developed nation on earth - not that that is a bad thing but I can see why foreigners might dismiss it out of hand. Which leaves us with kiwis, and are any better kiwis than Totori available? I don't think so. Our other signings have been Brockie and Moss, both good additions, while the other import slots are taken by Sanchez (who was good when he was played in CAM) Smith (who was our best mid for a while there last year)  and Ifill (nuff said). Are there better kiwis than that available? And if not, would you rather give up those guys to gamble on an import who may well flop, as so many have before?

It would be great if we could sign big name stars and tear up the league but lets be realistic, that's never gonna happen. Now we just need a solid RB and some CB cover and we will have a decent squad which could beat any other team in the league on its day, and given the format of the competition that's all you need.

I'm actually liking the look of our side the more I think about it - especially if Ricki can get them play to their strengths!

Plus we have just upped our chances of having Harper say "Totori gave it some violence!"  That would be gorgeous.

Can't agree Barry.  There have to be more players of the Ifill and Greenacre ilk and level, in their late twenties, who would love the change as Ifill and Greenie have.

I'm not advocating spending a million on a Culina.  I'm advocating spending $250k on a Clinton Morrison (just a name based on some Podcast conjecture a while back), which is an estimate related to ifill money and what Daniel was alleged to be on.

That is aspirational. 

As Whitby Boy said, Smith was a 'if we can't find better', so was Sanchez and we've signed them both.  You can't tell me that through the links the club has with the UK that we couldn't find better up front than the collection of attacking midfielders and Pavs we're now being told is the solution to all our needs.

Also.  No, I know of no better kiwi strikers currently available than Totori.

Are they going to be available (or be found) every year though? Perhaps the market was a bit lacking this year. Who knows. 

Or perhaps the owners do have a tight budget,local player only mentality. 

Time will tell. 

I think people are getting the wrong end of what you're saying,I believe you did say that you liked the totori signing earlier on? So what you're saying is only loosely related to the signing?

IMHO 2 more players we need to sign ahead of a striker is a CB cover and a RB (either first team or cover).

The logic on the CB cover is obvious, RB to cover Manny - because I don't envisage both Lochhead and Manny not being available at the same time for an extended period and Manny can cover both RB and LB. A RB will also allow Manny into midfield if Lia/Smith/Sanchez/Lindsay are injured/suspended and Ricki wants to continue playing 4231/433 (we do lack a bit of depth in central midfield; if Lindsay is up to it, it will be a big bonus). 

Or perhaps maybe the Nix Nine or however many there are these days have made the call that sinking $$$ into the Academy or whatever it's going to be called will create more positive long-term benefits for the club than signing gun foreign players right now - the "Warriors strategy", I think it's called.

We've discussed the flaws in assuming the Warriors model is the perfect solution for NZ Football and the Phoenix.  A much less captive audience and an infinite number more possibilities exist for the best football players, let alone the difference between a full part in the Toyota Cup heavily funded by the National body and the Phoenix yoof aligned with TeeDubs.

I think to do it properly it needs to be a side in the National Yoof League but that is another can of financial worms.

Yes.  As I said earlier I think he is exactly the sort of punt we should take, but not when we have already re-signed Smith and Sanchez and stated we'll only use 4 import spots. 

Short arms and long pockets, and our import spots used leaves us badly understrength as far as I can see.

Except football is a completely different landscape to league in this country. The nrl is the premier comp,players are likely to hang around. The A league is not. 

You need to have a mix of the 2 surely. It's also not like they're investing big dollars in an academy either. 

You would be suprised at the cost

Accomodation and meals

Education

Who is reponsible for them outside of Football ? 

Reserve team coach and staff (Riki won`t be doing this one)

Reserve team game costs.... Travel, grounds, Strip, equipment etc

It all adds up 

OMG, that was just embarrassing!

That was Rob wasn't it?

So are we trying to sign the minimum amount of players on the minimum wage possible but also trying to win the league? This isn't Moneyball.

LOL what's the betting Totori will be the next Hernandez. After 2 years this thread will be brought up, We will all read it again and laugh........ hahaha....... "what were we like"....... then we go out and celebrate winning the league......

There's also well more than 3 full months to go before the start of the season...

Yeah look. The Warriors strategy is totally cool and I'm very glad Welnix are investing in future players for both NZ and the 'Nix. BUT its a long term game plan. We won't see the fruit of our young developing players until they are ripe, and professional footballers are slow blooming.

You need bridge that time period and keep the team successful both on the field and in the balance sheet.

The club needs to have recruited the necessary players to keep the team pumping, getting into finals, having perfect home form to keep punters coming through the gates. I'm not sure are doing this.

Totori isn't a bad signing but he would've been a much better signing if we had dropped Smith and signed Reid (or other aussie DM) to free up foriegn spaces. You could say that Smith, Sanchez or Totori are fine players to have use up one import slot, but when all three use up import slots thats pretty average. None of those players are a significant cut above the A-league average.

In summary: In the context of our dwindling import slots signing Totori makes our recruitment look a bit average at best and the prospects of improving the side over last years, both in terms of personnel and results look poor (or certainly less good than before).

I just think that if Welnix wanted to spend $250k on a Clinton Morrison, or whoever, they would want their manager to be involved in the process from start to finish.  We all agree that they are not football people, yet we expect them to handle this side of things on their own?

Ricki signed the most suitable person he was able to negotiate with over the last 6 weeks.

What a load of rubbish.

The real problem here is that Ryan Nelsen has been distracted by his move to QPR over the past few weeks so he hasn't had time to send Ricki his weekly "coaching to-do list".

Are other sides imports really that amazing in comparison to ours?

*Cassio must be close to getting his Aussie passport now.

Adnan might re-sign with the Roar, to be their 4th import. But looking at that, there is a big difference between the quality of Roar & CCM's imports compared to the rest of the league.

CCM? Really? I'd call Brisbane as having imports that are amazingly better than ours,that's about it though. 

Can't we all just agree that we are doomed?

Well that goes without saying. The question is to what degree are we doomed? 

Is Totori a starter? Nope. That makes this a wasted signing.

The other thing about the current squad is that there is a distinct lack of aerial ability on attack. Nothing wrong with that if you play the right sort of football. But if several games into next season it appears that we are pumping longballs up to a bunch of midgets then I swear to god....I will tear up my season pass!!!!!!

Give him a chance. I'm happy with the signing.

Good thing we have 5 import spots and weren't intending to use them all until he signed. He is cheap and could well end up starting. We will see.

Double post. Can we delete here?

I honestly think we got lucky getting Greenacre and especially Ifill, because there doesn't seem to have been any equivalents that have even come close. We missed out on both Rigters and Mehmet and yet neither of them set the league alight. Clinton Morrison might do a good job if we got him but with 10 goals in his last 68 appearances according to Wikipedia he doesn't exactly sound like he would be a big goalscorer and I'm still not convinced that the extra wages he would cost would be worth it in terms of impact. Also New Zealand is along way to shift from England for a one or two year contract if you have a young family like a lot of players in that age-range would, and we wouldn't want to offer a longer contract without being sure they will perform.

With the Smith and Sanchez re-signings I think that maybe you could argue we could get better than Smith but he does have the ability to play all over the park, is a good distributor, can win the ball in the air or in tackles, and generally seemed to work hard. Sanchez was ineffective out wide and didn't ever last the full 90 but when he was playing centrally he was better than most attacking mids who have been tried by the Nix. Dumping him to take a gamble on another player who could end up being a Toto or G** would have been harsh.

Defenders are also generally cheaper than strikers and I for one would rather see money spent on a solid experienced RB who can cover centrally or on the left as well. As I said somewhere else (maybe the transfers speculation thread a while ago) striker is the sort of position that young guys can come in and make an immediate impact because raw talent and pace can make up for lack of positioning and tactical awareness but defence is different. That's why strikers and attacking mids and wingers generally break into teams younger than defenders and goalkeepers do. I know Totori's not young but I'd rather see a young guy (not Pav!) given a chance up front so we can shore up the defence than vice versa. I guess what I'm saying is if the club is going to take a gamble on a player I would rather it was a striker than a defender, and this move hopefully frees up funds for a defender from somewhere.

I gues its not glamourous and casual punters won't be queing up to watch a new right back but if that can help us win games then they will show up anyhow. Also, if the Totori move forces us to play more attractive football, which it might, then that might also help the club's brand and help get bums on seats more than a big guy playing with his back to goal would. Although tbh I'm not sure how much of an impact playing style would have on attendence but you never know.

Is traore an import? Wasnt aware of that. Personally i think the best imports in the league are Broich, Ifill & Zwaanswijk. So we arent doing too badly.

Cant wait to see people eat their humble pie re: Totori "a wasted signing". I think hes going to do well in the A-League