Can't wait for YF's favourite devil's advocate - James Dean - to awaken from his slumber and poor cold water on the so far largely unrestrained joy on display at this signing:
"He's too old"
"His goals per game ratio is crap"
"He hasn't played for months, he'll be unfit"
"This is a knee-jerk signing by the Phoenix three weeks out from the start of season"
"He's Belgian"
JD - you know I love you and you also know this is a thinly disguised attempt at a wind-up on my part but let me just pre-empt your natural inclination towards the dark-side by saying it's all cool bro. Just relax and have a little faith. Any signing is a gamble but on paper at least this seems like a good one. It is the natural state of any football fan three weeks out from the start of the season to be highly optimistic and dream that better days are ahead, so let's just enjoy the moment.
And with that I'm off to buy a packet of Belgian biscuits and settle down in front of Youtube for the evening watching 6 year-old videos of Stein scoring goals on FIFA.
Just saw this as been away in San Sebastien (I'd recommend it, great food great City beach)
This is exactly the type of signing I've been crying out for! Quality, properly targeted to fill a gap in our squad and should enhance our style of play. I'm really looking forward to seeing this guy in action - hope he has some match fitness. He'll get a lot more chances here than he would do in Holland/Belgium with A-League defences so I wouldn't worry too much about those goal scoring stats.
Did people read the announcement as he had signed in the Ukraine but then backed out of the contract? If so, we may have gotten a bit lucky with this one...