Phoenix Transfer Speculation 2012/13

i have to agree i think aaron clapham is better than alex smith. it's a shame he's going nowhere at the moment. waste of talent

smith needs to join pavlovic on the heap. pantelis and downey are 3/4 of the way there...

i think smith is a good squad player can fill in most positions on the field and does a good job and a hell of a lot better than pavlovic, pantelis and downey.. he may not be the creative midfielder people are crying out for but i feel he deserves to be in the squad .

Well he isn't exactly helping himself by only playing 14 games a year.  He expects something to land on his plate. Should be heading off to the VPL etc to get more game time.

Unfortunately, Kiwis count as imports in other sides but if they were good enough, they would get picked as an import including Tade. Those that play here like Krishna and Tade would be an import for as well as the other 9 sides in the league. Why haven't they signed them if Ricki has clearly lost his marbles? The fact is that Smith was with another side (yes he got dumped for a supposedly bigger star) so was good enough to play elsewhere in the league (granted it was Miron so not much to rave about)

 People are being harsh on Smith, he doesn't seem to have been on best form this season but was excellent value last season.

manny isnt exactly outshining smith on current form either though. They have different jobs and smith seems to do a lot of cover work. In the past we have had browny always covering the second man to prevent passing options with the DM being the one to make the challenges

They also arent exactly given much help with the options in front them.

I don't think we can expect many late runs into the box, as he's been sitting a lot deeper than brown would - which is understandable when there are supposed to be 4 attacking players in front of the midfield.

All this talk of comparing Brown and Smith is crap. Brown was his most effective as the most forward of a 3 man midfield where he didn't have to worry about defensive shape or being an option out of defence.

Make an effort to actually watch smith at the ROF next time. Last week in particular, he was the ONLY making a run toward the ball to receive it. It was ridiculous the number of touches he had in relation to most of the rest of the team. I'd be interested to see a stat actually. That to me, translates to a decent central midfielder. Certainly not one who deserves to be cut! 

Smith > Clapham

and neither is really good enough to play in a title winning a-league midfield.  This is like 2 bald men fighting over a comb

Fair point but Clapham is handicapped by lack of alternatives here. The eight team ASB Premiership has too short a season and he's only an on-off All White selection. I gather his main income is coming from a kids TV programme in Canterbury so he's not so free to spend the winter season in an Aussie state league team. That's always a bit of a road to nowhere as far as RH is concerned anyway - look at Jason Haynes and Brent Fisher at Green Gully. To catch RH's attention he has to be under his nose, week in and week out. I'm sure Clapham would play out of his skin for the Phoenix. I wish he was playing for City.

As for Krishna, I'd pick him over Tortori and I'd pick Tade over both of them.

Those same lack of alternatives got Ian Hogg a gig... Also Rojas, Baroborouses, Wood.........

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Surely your not suggesting that Tony L is not up to scratch?
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In the All Whites, yes I am. In the Phoenix, I have my doubts. But none of that matters because clearly he's a firm favourite with RH who I'm sure would pick him even if he needed a zimmer frame.

I see Beckham is sniffing around the A League for when the MLS ends its season. There's a mid-field option - might be worth a few thousand extra screaming girls at the caketin. John Keys I'm sure would be clamouring for a pre-game photo with him. 

I laugh at the people saying Tim Brown did this for us and Tim Brown did that for us. 12 months ago, he was the invisible man for us and now he did all this stuff. It was the same when Lochhead was out injured and he was rubbish before hand but people found out exactly what he did when he was not there.

Ian Hogg had the benefit of the Club World Cup with City and the Olympics. Rojas and Barborouses benefitted from the Phoenix and AWs and Wood made his name at the last World Cup. Playing in an Aussie state league didn't come into it for any of them. I think Clapham is trying everything he can, he's just not on RH's radar.

IMHO I don't think RH and co pay enought attention to the best NZ talent in the ASB Premiership, or haven't in the past. So Fenton and Biss and the new academy tie up with Team Wellington is a welcome development. 

Yeah but how did they get out of the Premiership? Rojas, Wood and Kosta were not exactly the 3 best players in the league at a time when Jordan and co were still playing. Clapham can probably claim a place in the top 5 (I haven't thought about it, just throwing it out there) so again, how did those lack of alternatives get them out of the Premiership?

You not far wrong there on some points. There is a sense of irony in the attacking talents we have, we are missing Tim Brown...

 Tim did a job for us. He scored a lot of goals pushing forward, but he went missing for long periods of the game, which meant he was contributing zip in the greater scheme of things.

To add to this, I doubt very much there are any A-League quality midfielders knocking round in NZ who are just going to magically fix our midfield.

 Auckland City apparently have a bucketload who would easily do it.... (could not resist)

It's funny, but lots of you keep saying there aren't ASB Premiership players who can step up to the A League but if you look at the facts, plenty have. Up till now it has more been lack of opportunity. Rojas didn't exactly set the ASBP alight (granted he was a kid), nor did Barborouses or Brockie when they played in our national league - but they've proved good enough at A League level. Now we have Fenton and Biss. Jordan was probably the best striker in NZ six years ago but couldn't get a look in at the Phoenix. Jason Haynes was probably the best wide player three years ago but likewise. There are probably half a dozen current ASBP players outside RH's vision who could step up because lets be honest, the gulf between the leagues isn't so huge. It's more a matter of stepping up from part-time training to full time training and a higher fitness level. ACFC isn't far off the Phoenix.

Up till now I've always felt the disconnect was in RH's preference for bringing in players from Australia rather than developing NZ talent. Fenton is a classic case, it hasn't surprised me he's made the step up because I see his level of ability in others in the national league. Adam Thomas could do it, so too Alex Feneridis. They just need the effort put in to developing them. Thankfully I now think the Phoenix have shifted in this direction.

From where I sit there are definitely players in the ASBP that are able to step up. But we don't want people to just step up and become a squad player. We want people who are going to make a name for themselves. We want people who are going to liven things up in the midfield. The truth is in all probability, as JD put it, there aren't any quality midfielders round NZ who are going to magically fix our midfield.

Mulligan, for one, was a player who could step up to A-League level but was never more than a squad player. You can't make the argument there that he didn't get enough game time to try make his point. The reality is he got more than he should have and didn't do enough. 

Musa is also one of those kinds of players. Very good young player but he would never have been more than a squad player at the Nix. 

Could Ethan Galbraith be worth a look? Didn't he put a few away in Aus this season??

 Also I'm getting confused between Fenton and Bevin? Did both have a spell in the VPL and were both shining??