Good signing i reckon. I truly believe the only reason he hadn't signed with the club earlier came down to Herbitism.
Or that it was 5 years ago when he trialled.
All that tells us is that once Ricki makes up his mind about someone then thats it. He didnt see what he wanted in Roy and wrote him off, perhaps understandably at the time, but hes been so good since then. Ricki had this mindset with a few players actually, even our own. He never saw Kosta or Rojas as being good enough. Then they go to aussie and start performing instantly. The same way of thinking is what kept Lochead and Christie in the AWs.
If it werent for Kosta and Rojas' success elsewhere he probably wouldnt have played many other youth, like Fenton. Not saying Fenton isnt good enough, he clearly is, but I reckon only when Ricki had been made to look like such a fool with the other two he actually started to change his train of thought - a little bit. It all came far too late for him though sadly.
FML.
It's clear that Ernie doesn't see Boyd as good enough as he only plays him off the bench and doesn't start him. Say.
Any more ignorance?
I think he makes a fair point. It took a lot to change Ricki's mind on a player once he was set. Rojas eventually broke into the starting line-up but it took some superb performances off the bench to convince him of that. Kosta never really became established for us before getting pinched by the Rawr. Meanwhile he regularly started the likes of Jade North / Ahmad Elrich who was supposedly socceroos but played like pants. Strangely that changed a bit last year when he felt compelled to pick some young players (Fenton, Boyd) despite them arguably not being ready at the time.
Ernie seems a lot less likely to pick on reputation so far, which is why I find it so strange that he's persisting with Brockie currently.
absolute BS.
So Jade North and Ahmad Elrich were taking taking Kosta and Rojas' spots? Or would that have been Greenie, Ifill and Leo?
"Rojas eventually broke into the starting line-up but it took some superb performances off the bench to convince him of that."
That doesn't seem a lot like never seeing someone as being good enough yeh? Marco was injured for a year and then forced his way into the starting line up from the bench. At which point we offered him Terry dollars to stay and he chose Melbourne. So no not a fair point at all.
Kosta wasn't better than the options we had and didn't take his chances when he had them. If you look at how he is playing for Melbourne this year, it is very similar. Everyone is saying how great he is, but he hasn't been converting chances, similar to the way he played against the Island nations for the AWs. He has missed a lot of easy chances or one-on-ones.
As for Ernie- how about Kenny?
Time and time again on this forum someone has come on saying Ricki didn't give the youth a chance, which is not the case. Kosta has said that, and both Marco and he certainly benefited from Ange's system, coaching and the quality of players around him, but for the Phoenix he was too inconsistent to demand a starting spot as of right.
Rojas broke into the squad only when injuries left Ricki without other options. Kosta wasn't as lucky. This has all shit balled way off topic.
Back on topic please.
Didn't know you'd become a mod AJ.
The change in selection policy IMO has more to do with Welnix and Morgan and no Terry and less to do with Ricki suddenly rating the youth. I think his natural instinct would have been not to have played Fenton and Boyd as much as he did, but some of the players (IE Totori, and a few others, lets be honest here and say it included Huysegems too) came up short of what we'd expected from them. Welnix (going on some of the things Gareth Morgan said) seemed to think if we played lots of youth we'd find tonnes more Marcos. But it doesn't work like that.