Phoenix Transfer Speculation 2013/14

Middlesbrough has a great youth academy so Im in favour of the Nix one..it will churn out product from what we have to start with.

Less than 14 for the big clubs, eg Jack Wilshere has played for Arsenal since he was 9. 

This is where Whole of Football will hopefully make a difference long term. The Fed Talent Centres identify players at age 11. In Chch Mainland had a School of Football running for 2 years prior to FTC. So some of their older FTC players (age 15) have been training 45 weeks a year since age 11. Feed some of them plus your WYNRS, Oles and APFA kids into Nix FSE and there should be some talent for Ernie  to develop in the next couple of years. Good things take time.

back to transfers...

is adams the extra centre back that merrick was on about earlier?  i got the impression that he was chasing a first team centre back and i'm not sure if adams would fit this criteria.

if this is the case, we can expect to have a squad with 5 centre backs.  therefore, i think there's a good chance that we will play with a back 3, as merrick often did in the past.

one of the features of merrick's back 3 was the play of kevin muscat, who played as a libero, often moving in to midfield.    i've always been impressed with durante's footballing skills and reckon he could be our muscat (without the nut bar tendencies of course) if merrick decides to roll out a back 3

adding further weight is the fact that merrick confirmed that manny muscat will be played in midfield this season. manny is a full back, but not a wing back, thus wouldn't fit properly into this formation

just speculating

Guys for your academy look at the Mariners model [not saying to use just have a look]... well model phase three ....

The current model works very well and it took some time to determine how and what to do given costs and budgets...

The Mariners have two academies from U 9 to U 18, both male and female.... it works by partnership agreements with two football associations, one the Central Coast Association and the other the NSW Association [essentially western country NSW] ...

The Mariners coach the rep coaches in these associations and design manuals for the coaches to follow.... meaning we have I think three full time coaches training and designing models for the rep teams in these two associations... it's not perfect but very cost effective and some talented players want to play in these rep teams from other areas...

Just sharing ... great to see football being developed and good luck with your academies .... 

if we were able to get more kids into futsal in the off season then that'd be good, i've heard a few advertisements for it which is positive. If clubs could figure out a way to have both football and futsal on their roster then it'd be great. Works for brasil, works for spain no reason why it can't work for us.

I used to play futsal in some gym at the chinese (I think) embassy in wellington, across the road from the botanical gardens - was quite a big comp by the looks too, lots of teams

Surely there's more gyms around that can be utilised for a decent price like that, as conantroutman (!?) says

Rumour that Antonis deal with Parma has fallen through and may return to league - but Sydney may not have room for him.

Doubt we'd be in with a shout but worth a look - rapidly improved last year in my opinion

Yep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVeSSO9SENo

Looks handy, would be good, although a search for him strongly indicates the Parma deal being done and dusted.

Good player if you can get em... 

So no news on this Bayern Munich defender

Trandmueller wasn't at training when I drove past yesterday and article on the front page says he's gone.

Tuiloma would be overseas if he had interest anywhere. Perfect player for Merrick. Journos need to get off ass in write that story

Merrick = Herbert for me so far with Fenton thing. No idea why we don't just try and sign an actual right back. Stop treating like the red headed stepchild. It's just as important as Central Midfield. GRRR

He said he wants his RB/LB to be able to attack. 2 birds with one stone. I do agree however, from what I saw at Porirua park, Fenton is not up to it.

"If I have to sell it I don't want him, he can move on," Merrick laughed.

So if Louis wasn't keen Merrick would cut him? Jesus. 

not sure Fenton is the answer to RB problem, but if  he can add that to his skill set then if we are desparate then ok, I guess. I'd much rather we had a proper right back and let Fenton play forward.

Merrick said early on that he wants pacey wide defenders who will be a major part of his attacking strategy. He also hinted that it was very difficult to recruit the right kind of players to the Nix. Maybe he has tried to find a pacey RB but come up empty handed....he has then looked at his current squad and seen Fenton as a player with the right sort of physical attributes that he thinks might do the job. Its a big leap however to take a young lad who is just finding his feet at this level and converting them from an attacker to a defender.

Bertos's conversion to RB sort of made sense at the time because he was a senior pro. He was an established player who knew the ropes at A-League level. As a fan you just kind of wonder why they just don't go out and buy a RB. Other A-League clubs seem to be able to fill this position OK. Or maybe this is the reality for Ernie....that recruiting players to a NZ pro club that came last in the A-League  and does not have a lot of $$$ really is a tough ask. It will be quite interesting to see how well he does with the two import slots.