Phoenix Transfer Speculation 2012/13

 A big name Australian would make me feel dirty.

if they helpd us win would you really mind?

And those issues are not fixed by one 'name player'.

Besides, the issue is the back 6 that are out of wack. An attacking midfielder is not going to stop us leaking goals or fix our back line.

 I don't think it is that easy to just pick your highest paid player and mark him as your marquee. You must apply to the FFA to have a player approved as marquee, although I can't find what criteria they consider.

We have a bigger problem in signing a big name Aussie than money. They don't want to come here.

I assume that we have looked for over the ditch for player to come in and have found none. Who was the last decent player to come here from another club in Aussie? Pantelis? Well that might've been good if it worked out. And before that?

We have had rubbish luck recruiting from known quality from Aussie.

Admittedly there have been obstacles recently, the ownership crisis and the formation of WSW has resulted in a but of a talent drought in the Australian player market. But really the only Aussie player worth his salt in the history of the club is Dura. 

You can count North/McKain of you want (but they never seemed very happy here and didn't last long) and I'm excluding Muscat cos of Malta and he we didn't recruit him from another A-league club although he is recruitment success story (one of few)

Its little wonder the majority of speculation is on Kiwi/All Whites/ASB prem players, this is the first time I've seen "recruit an Aussie" for a long time I think. And its about time, I mean do we really have a competitive future in this league as an All Whites club (without even some of the best ones) supplemented by up and coming Kiwi talent, who if they are really good enough will move on in a few seasons.

Recruitment has been rubbish in recent seasons, the club has stagnated, the league has moved on and we are seeing the results. Hope Gareth and co can see this and intend to act on it.

I wanted Garcia in the off season but um maybe Paul Reid will jump out of retirement(?) to save us. <some emoticon to indicate this is a joke>

Would rather have Keat anyway.

Kylie Minogue can make me feel dirty any time she likes.

Oooooooooooooh!!!!!!  I should be so lucky!

That's when good neighbours become good "friends".

I wonder if Harold Bishop would have approved of such behaviour.

It would be hard to know ever since he was so badly burned by Frankie.

 Any idea if Keat is being even looked at by any club since his release by LA Galaxy? I treid trawling through news wires but zip so far.

I think we're focussing too much on a "marquee" attacking midfielder.  We don't need a marquee and I'm not sure the player actually needs to be an attacking one - what we need is a player with the ability to pass the ball short and long from deep to play alongside Muscat.

Serves 2 purposes - gives Muscat the single focus to defend which is is pretty good at (although not as good as we thought he was - his positioning can be pretty atrocious and he is overly attracted to the player with the ball) and means we can actually get the ball forward to our decent attacking players in a quick controlled way.  

There are players in the league who are not marquees who can definitely do that.

Turner identifies player quality as the issue.  Ignoring Herbery for a second it's a fair assessment - I don't think the issue is actually one of playing style, it's really about the fact our players just aren't good enough whether we play long ball or tiki taka (or something in between).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10860555

This is a really good point.

Although I think it's great that the number of Kiwis in the squad is increasing the reality is that to win the A-League we are always going to need a number of decent Aussies in the squad. Our ability to attract these kind of guys does seem to have declined since the Durante/McKain days. Pantelis doesn't count because he was desperate and we were desperate.

A marquee might be part of the solution but maybe we also need to focus on doing whatever it takes to recruit at least 3 quality Aussies, with decent A-League experience, during the off-season.

Totally agree with the comment about the breakers - how they had to sign winners. I think we need that experience and confidence.

Also think we need a strong holding midfielder. A real enforcer type that the league hasnt really had before.

They spent the money and signed the leagues best player though, then the leagues best import, and other top 20 players at a time when the rest of the league was struggling for money and couldn't hold them.

Our owners don't have an interest in spending the money to do that.

people are confusing this - the owners said they wont be splashing out on big marquee signings - that doesnt mean they arent going to spend money within the cap to get decent players. Huysegems for example.

Also think we have to spend over 85% of the cap (?)
Also signing experience and winners doesnt always mean throwing away money

 They aren't going to get the best players in the league spendign 85% of the cap.

depends. 

Could have 4-5 experienced first team players with A-league experience and 6 youngsters on the minimum & still be at 85% with the rest of the squad.

Morrison said preseason that Ricki could spend the salary cap.

What is really needed is intelligent recruitment. This needs time and commitment. You can make smart recruitment and also not break the bank. Where we have failed in previous season is that it has seemed that not enough time and thought about recruitment has happened. Often we have rushed some trialist out late in the piece and then made some decisions that in hindsight were not that great. Often Ricki has been distracted by AW duty and last preseason he went on the Olympic junket while other A-League coaches were fine tuning their squads.

The best recruitment we have done was when Ricki and Tony P went to the UK and came back with Ifill and Greenacre. They researched properly, took their time and unearthed two gems. And they both came in under the salary cap.

Europe is the biggest showcase of talent. It is the world biggest drawcard for players. Currently this region is also in a terrible financial situation. This has flowed into the football community. Most clubs are retrenching. Most clubs are shedding players. Close to 50 pro players in Holland and 140 in France failed to find a club preseason. It is probably never been a better time to recruit. Sure lots of these players are too expensive or would not want to come to the A-League. But there would also be plenty of players who would jump at the chance of extending their playing careers.

To find the right players would require time on the ground. To see these players in action and to talk to them and see how they would fit into our setup. If done properly we could find another Ifill or Greenie. But it needs to be done in the correct way. Has Ricki got the time to do this off season and run the AW's?  

Going on from austin10's post, Ange Postecoglou wrote an article recently about transfers.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/nothing-clear-in-window-of-opportunity-20130110-2cizk.html

Seems to have been a common theme in recent seasons the AW's taking a lot of Ricki's time and as you say often rushing out players that may or may not be the best choice for the club due to not enough time being put into recruitment in the first place

 Any news on Dan Keat?

Russell. Lols

I agree with this.

We need a distributing midfielder with a bit of defensive pace who can win the ball sit deep and pull the strings, not a tricky inventive 10 who can get on the ball and bamboozle centre backs.

If you accept it as gospel that we won't spend any more money than we currently are, what would you do between now and the end of this season? Or before next season?

That is the dilemma Ricki faces.

 Not particularly consistent.