Phoenix Transfer Speculation 2012/13

So.Much.This!

Re some of the comments above about Ricki giving some of the young all whites a go, I wonder whether being coach of both teams affects this.

I don't want to have the debate about him doing too many things because that's been done to death, but would he prefer Tsatalios over Hogg (just as an example) if he wasn't also mindful of Hogg getting some playing time?

If he was just coaching the Nix he probably wouldn't give a flying fuck about whether the wider squad gets much playing time, but if he's also wanting to have his all whites actually playing some football, that might at least add an extra element into the mix.

Just a thought, but perhaps that has affected Ricki's tendency to recruit shithouse young australians to warm the bench over the last few seasons.

So lets do a summary of this latest press release.

Manny will play CM and Lia RB

We are still looking at an overseas striker.

We are trialing a 19 yr old Uraguay midfielder....don't know if he is AM or DM

Must say the logic of all this is a bit confusing and completely contradicts many earlier statements. You do wonder sometimes how much strategic thought and planning goes into this. Ricki has just come off 3 weeks with the AW's and a weeks holiday...he goes away with the Olywhites on the 7th for a month. Its almost like he's suddenly found himself back at the Nix for a couple of weeks and its " shiite...the Phoenix have assembled for preseason, better think about recruitment...."

I know this is not the case but really you do wonder. I put this down to someone trying to juggle too many balls at the same time. Also things would be different if we had a proper full time experianced assistant coach(like every other ferkin A-League club) At least there would have been someone scouting and lining up potential recruits on a fulltime basis.

This off season was meant to be when everything got back on a professional basis. No more ownership/money worries. What we are seeing is a continuation of the rather shambolic adhoc recruitment of previous years(Ifill and Greenie year excluded)

I blame the poor weather, the long off season and the recent All Whites failure.. this makes grim reading when you haven't been in for a while.Come on you lot.. lighten up!  long way to go yet...pace yourselves now ;-I

I think we need a right back and anothe left back Lochead has been less than average on occassion and having a specialist Left back in the squad to push can only make us better and give Ricki more options.

Considering that there is three months until the start of the season, why wouldn't you have the nine youngsters training over the next couple of months and then see who looks likely to step up, and then promote them around September time? Isn't a bit early for the angst on what youth should be signed as an understudy to Lochhead or Dur/Sig?

Am more worried about a starting 11 striker.

I firmly believe both Hogg and Rowe could push Lochy for a starting spot.

Two things Lochy has up on both youngsters:

1) experience

2) is more tactically sound

Hogg & Rowe have more pace, are better crossers of the ball and just as good at tackling

And since Hogg has already been capped for the AW's and surely Rowe is a prospect, I really hope we sign one of those.

Re: Uruguayan MF..wouldn't it be great if we had found the new Marco Flores? I am a bit concerned as to why a 19 y.o. would want to go and play in Aussie..they usually try to make it in SA, then maybe lower leagues in Europe, THEN elsewhere..but if he's any good I ain't complaining.

More likely Rowe as he would fill an U21 spot.

I think the Uruguayan Midfielder coming to trial shows the reason why we shouldnt have signed both smith & sanchez so early.

What happens if this kid is better than Sanchez? And we want to sign that foreign striker.

Signing Sanchez was an indication that we didnt want to try and find a better AM.

'Overseas' striker.  Not necessarily an import.

Potentially another U21 spot......albeit an import

Never know may convert to a RB

Hmm. Could we cancel Smiths contract like GCU did to sign Rigters las preseason?

Not that I particuarly want to but is it an option? Or did GCU just put cheeky out clauses in their contracts?

Heard RH talking about Boxall maybe being an option if the money is right. Surely this is a pisstake? he would've been on five tenths of f*ck all over in the MLS

That was my reaction as well.

Unless our 'overseas' striker is being offered a fortune we shouldn't be near the league cap.

Yeah, me too 

The cynic in me was thinking Ricki was putting this out as an already made excuse for not signing Boxall.

Here is a list, not sure how accurate, of Australians playing overseas:

http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Abroad/index.html

Well if we are checking out Uruguay then why not Richard Porta? Richard Garcia is also off contract.

I think either of those might be too expensive to get Boxall too.

Garcia is more of a winger/wide attacker in the same mould as Brockie and Ifill. 

Didn't someone have statistics on how much MLS players were getting paid and Boxall was only only like US$35,000 a year? 

...or did I just dream that?

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/May%2015,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20Alphabetical.pdf

Yeah I just couldn't find a lot on that list that is A: A striker, B: playing at a reasonable level.

Let alone C:Is off contract or D:Is old enough to consider leaving Europe or anywhere to pick up pay checks here.

Here's some other names I mangaged to Google and check against some of these criteria:

James Geogreff: is 29 plays in lower leagues of Germany, cannot find anything much on him.

And by far the pick of the crop: Massimiliano "Max" Vieri formerly of Juventus is 33 and playing (what I think is) 3rd tier Italian football.

All the other strikers in that list are youth or young, recent A-league exports or Scott Mcdonald. The list only includes footballer who have represented Australia (1sts or age group) and does contain errors.

There are some younger players out there, but I assume that we want a finished product and youth will want to stay and chase dreams in Europe.

There are some players in 2nd and 3rd tier in Greece that could probably be picked up but who knows if they are any good.

Is it possible that there could be quality players who haven't been capped for Australia who play overseas?

Reckon you are barking up the wrong tree thinking it's an australian. Or kiwi for that matter

Could well be barking up the wrong tree, but that was just one possible interpretation given that the overseas striker was technically never specified as an import, bolstered by the fact that we are apparently looking at a Uruguayan at the same time.

I don't really expect us to find a non-foriegn striker either. But with only one import space left and while in pursuit of some superior (import) striker why are we trialling some Uruguayan 19-year-old?

Trialling the player doesnt mean we are going to sign him. Maybe we will look at him and get him next year? Or Sanchez will get injured. 

Trials never hurt

Where the fudge did this Clemenger guy come from and why does he have Ifill's number?  Has he been let go?

Ifill gone, replaced by an advertising agency. If its bigger than a 4 or 5 man agency we're surely f**ked for going over the 23 man squad.

Boxall is only on NZ$56k a year, surely we can get close to that?

He's no Donald Draper, that's for sure

From MLS Player Union site: Boxall on "Guaranteed Compensation" of $US 44.100 ($NZ 55,500) which is one of the three lowest salaries at Vancouver. The avg. salary there is $US 144,000 (base - but most earn a lot more with add-ons), 18 Vancouver players earn more than $US 75,000 ("guaranteed"), 14 earn more than $US 100,000, 11 more than $US 150,000.

Boxall has been replaced by an Argentinian centreback earning $US 277,000

In comparison, other All Whites in MLS: Andy Boyens - $US 66,000           Dan Keat - $US 68,700

Avg. MLS salary 2012: $US 144,000 (base) N.B. all figures above are what they actually earn "guaranteed" 

 "The annual average guaranteed compensation number includes a player's base salary and all signing and guaranteed bonuses annualized over the term of the player's contract, including option years. For example, if a player has a base salary of $50,000, has a two-year contract with two one-year options and received a $10,000 bonus when he signed, his average annual guaranteed compensation would be $52,500 (base salary plus signing bonus ($10,000), with the signing bonus divided by the number of years covered by the contract."

MLS players also get performance bonuses not covered by any of the above figures which can range from $US 750 per game for lower-ranked players to $US 5000 per game for the top players.

I guess the Phoenix don't pay out any of these extras, incl. signing-on fees, and this probably makes the A-League not so attractive to players from many foreign leagues where they are the norm, even the MLS (whose clubs are ranked in the 200's in terms of the best-paid teams in the world - a list headed by the top Euro football leagues and EPL, NBA, Major League Baseball etc.) 

See::

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/May%2015,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

http://thebootroomblog.com/2012/05/26/mls-player-salary-breakdown-charts-and-tables/

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/05/01/major-league-soccer-salaries-payroll-wages-2012-sporting-intelligence/

All I can say is that Clemenger guy better be able to rip apart defences with his tricky twists and turns and then cooly finish off the goals.  It will take more than a bunch of letters after his name and a spin dr to replace my bestest #8.

clemenger, hair or mod-helmet?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10816112

Again, The Papers troll this site and make up stories

Just thought I would throw this one from May 16 again

Loan... intriguing.

On loan from Aberdeen.

Bugger, guessed that one wrong, he just signed for Fleetwood Town on June 13th

Or China

Or Cadiffy City