2017/18 Transfer Speculation

Yes, duh. and directly as an import. 

Were any of those fellows actually born in Greece or Eastern Europe? If not you might as well include Pavlovic and Vukovic.

Thankfully that's the reason he hasn't been announced yet. WelNix are waiting to see what the wise heads on this forum think first. If we get enough people going "meh" about him, maybe he'll be on the next plane home and we'll get Marco Rojas instead.

#properkiwibloke etc

Pavlovic was born in Croatia, he's from the Lika region if I remember correctly. I also love how some people still refer to this part of the world as 'Eastern Europe', even though it's both geographically inaccurate (Goran's home-town is further west than Vienna or Naples for example), and derived from a political construct that is entirely meaningless today (and has been for decades now).

Bonevacia had played for Ajax and in the Dutch first division so don't see how his pedigree was ever in doubt.  People were skeptical about A-Rod who had never played senior football and I maintain that skepticism was correct as he was underwhelming for us over the time he was with us.  

The fact he has played so much senior football is definitely a positive as we do need more experienced players, that's for sure.

Roly played 1 game for Ajax over a three year span. Most of his time was at Roda (and half season at NAC Breda), so lower-half of the table clubs. This is comparable to Goran, who's obviously played lot more games at that level too.

By way of comparison, the Dutch league is currently ranked 14th in Europe, Croatian league is 17th.

I agree, I would have thought after years of seeing a mix of name imports flopping and relatively unknown imports making decent impacts in the HAL would mean most people should know it's impossible to predict how signings like this will eventuate. I guess people love to make predictions to give themselves a 50/50 chance of saying "I told you so" down the track. 

Yeah, there is no clear geographic boundaries between East and Western Europe, there's the former soviet block, or the byzantine empire, probably the only clear cultural divide now is orthodoxy vs western churches but then you have countries like Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia who are Lutheran so that doesn't work. It also isn't really a derogatory term with most Eastern European countries being classed as high income by the world bank and while the difference between Estonia and Germany is large the difference between Estonia and Portugal is not.

By the way, now that Paracki has been confirmed, any discussion about him should go in the contracted players fred.

If the likes of Iarocca and Poljak have continued to oxygen thieve a living as imports in this league then I don't think it's unreasonable to think he can do a good job.

vegans are elite humans and they'll let you know that!

Oh, sorry - by the way he was a stupid, violent boofhead I assumed he was Aussie-born.

I get your point about "Eastern Europe", though - I wonder whether someone from Berlin or Dresden counts?

I'll never forget the forummer (who shall remain nameless) who wrote off Roy Krishna as "a flat-track bully".

I think he moved to Oz with his family when he was 2 or 3, so he's practically an Aussie. They can have him.

Anyway, for speculative purposes based on how the club has listed the squad in that announcement we probably still need another midfielder and a forward (seems like Louis is back up right back).  It still feels like our squad is pretty much a starting XI, a couple of higher quality subs and then young players at the moment.  I'm still waiting for one of our young guys to really push into a starting role...

Goalkeepers: Lewis Italiano, Oliver Sail

Defenders: Tom Doyle, Marco Rossi, Andrew Durante, Scott Galloway, Dylan Fox, Ryan Lowry, Louis Fenton

Midfielders: Gui Finkler, Michael McGlinchey, Sarpreet Singh, Matt Ridenton, Goran Paracki, Alex Rufer, James McGarry

Forwards: Roy Krishna, Adam Parkhouse, Logan Rogerson, Hamish Watson

Probably another forward is the biggest need as Parkhouse is a winger (maybe ok in a 4-3-3), Rogerson is young and while talented doesn't look like a natural goal scorer and Watson has been tried and I think has been found wanting in terms of reliability.  

Yup, we need more goals from somewhere

If an import striker (last spot) is a must have, does this mean one of Clayton Lewis/Bill Tuiloma is also a must have?

I think if we ended up with a decent foreign striker plus Bill Tuiloma I'd be very happy

Have any kiwi's been invited to trial / train.

Does anyone know where Lewis is at currently, back in NZ?

would like to see a finisher, the problem for the last few years is that we've played our front 2-3 all wingers and no natural center forwards. If we manage to pull the like of Tuiloma or Lewis or nab Vidosic our midfield will be pretty well set. 

I'm not sure Dario is the right guy for us.Ifill level trickery is what's required,whatever position they play  imo

So to summarise all we need is an Ifill/Burns type signing and we'll be right? Plus Bill Tuiloma 

Eastern Bloc 5 FTW!!!

Meh i think our mid is ok now. Drop weemac back a bit to play between finkler and goran (all whitey type role). Get a foreign striker and a good wing (dream would be robbie kruse).
Then goal scoring pressure of krishna and we smack some ausies

JET as a center forward!!

Our new coach must have the contacts in Holland you'd think to snare somebody decent for the remaining foreign spot.

Here's the full list of Eredivisie players off contract, including some from Roda JC, the last club Darije managed:

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/eredivisie/vertrags...

For example, English striker Simon Church has just been released by Roda (ex Charlton Athletic & Reading):

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/simon-church/profil...

Only 28, would be a decent signing. 38 caps for Wales, including the Euro 2016 semi vs. Portugal

But he's probably more ambitious than to sign for the Nix if he wants to play for Wales. However he only played four games for Roda last season after struggling with a hip injury.

Spanish midfielder Marcos Gullon has just been released by Roda (ex-Villareal & Racing in Spain):

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/marcos-gullon/profi...

Young Dutch midfielder Farshad Noor has been released by Roda and also played for PSV reserve team which Darije coached a couple of years ago:

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/farshad-noor/profil...

14 Eredivisie appearances last season, 12 the season before under Darije at Roda.

2013 - 2015 played under Darije at PSV u-21 (reserve) team in the second tier.

Some good names on that list, but a lot of the strikers double-up as wingers or CAMs. Does anyone know if Darije prefers a big guy up front or more of a false 9 like Nathan Burns?

Even with Goran, our midfield is pretty light. At this point I think there is still plenty of space in our squad for Lia. Even if it was for him to more of squad player

I guess from the posts here he may not even be in Wgtn or NZ anymore as he sold off his stuff. 

Not sure if Trade Me takes refunds. 

Can't see Lia coming back at all. Surely the club would have given him  even a slight indication of the possibility if there was one before he sold up and moved out.

We have 3 starting mids in Goran, WeeMac and Gui, and 3 backups in Ridenton, Rufer, and Singh. Our backline has similar depth as well - the priority for investment has to be attacking players now. 

see id still argue that our midfield is lacks depth. most of those players play the same position and most play attacking roles. Only one of them is defensive and none are the box to box style, unless Ridenton counts as one, which i don't think he does. it leaves our midfield without any engine or linking/transition players. 

Of course it would be nice to have better backups but the balance of our midfield looks better than it did last year and most of the year before when we were trying to fit too many similar players on the pitch at once. I wouldn't be against investing more in it but only if we have money and spots left over after we get a striker.