2017/18 Transfer Speculation

I'm long since retired Jason!

Hopefully a handy player coming, not a handy player going

Where is Clayton Lewis at atm? would be a handy aquisition to bolster the midfield. Although do already have ridenton and rufer. You'd probably rank Lewis higher than them both.

Jesse Makarounas?

Did he mean to say handsy?

Trump heads to Phoenix . . .

I read on four four two forum it could be that Danny Choi kid from NPL side Blacktown City. Good signing but I think he is Korean? and we don't have any visa spots left.

Plucking a name out of thin air here, Adam Sarota. Unattached, played under Rado at the Roar & played in the Netherlands whilst DK was there. He didn't have a club all last season, I think he was getting over some injury issues.

We're hearing that too, Piney.

Watch this space #PhoenixAnnouncement https://t.co/3Wq09wli5O

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) August 22, 2017

QUite exciting news, one more decent player in midfield and there should be pretty strong competition right across the park (except goal keeper where we are definitely gambling)

"In his playing days, as a barrel-chested prop forward Chris 'Buddha' Handy played some 54 games for Queensland and was one of the select band of Wallabies to have lifted the Bledisloe Cup on two occasions."

http://www.saxton.com.au/chris-buddha-handy/

Not sure about his footwork, but his tackling against the All Blacks was legendary.

Unfortunately, he is now almost as old as LG, which rules him out as we should focus on talented youth.

Sarota was part of that talented crop of young Australian players that made a move to Europe in 2010, and seems to be the one that - despite being least visible - keeps getting game time in the Netherlands.  I rate him but find it highly unlikely he'd come here.

Gareth Ainsworth???

Mature age rookie has to play amateur football in Australia IIRC.

Mature Age Rookie – A Club can register an Australian Player that is aged 21 or older who last played in an Australian competition (eg. PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues) and has not played in a fully professional league for at least 18 months;

I assume you can swap Aus with NZ, but who knows. 

Ali Abbas

I must say I'm pretty underwhelmed - never rated him too much but of course I hope he proves me wrong for the good of the team.

At least this shows WelNix are trying...

Underwhelmed, but still an improvement on a crocked Fenton. Will add to squad depth.

Guess we have an answer as to what other options were being pursued after we got to 23 players...creative accounting.

Quite well done, I think. We haven't turfed Fenton to the wolves, but also it was obvious he wouldn't play much of a part this season.

I don't know what you were expecting

Unreal depth added this season. Im pretty astounded with what a few high quality coaches can do. Obviously time will tell if we can actually play on the field but in terms of recruitment I dont think we've every had a drive like this in our history. Usually come September/ October  we start dribbling out names of players with no A league experience  who usually flop when theyve signed.

All recruitment done by end of August. Amazing.

meh

Solid signing IMO. I'm not sure what people expected. Compared to seasons past we have recruited well I reckon. We've picked up 4 guys who have decent A League experience (Galloway, Mullen, Vidosic, Abbas) and the imports look solid too. There's no filler from State leagues or NZ, and we have a well balanced squad with good depth across most of the park now.

I feel like there's no point being anything but positive with how we have recruited. Vidosic and Kaludjerovic look to be great pick ups, Paracki is an unknown but he's looking good, Galloway will continue to develop as a solid fullback, and to get Mullen and Abbas as squad depth players was great. Think back to last season a few games, when the best of our substitution options were Ridenton and Parkhouse - we've added a huge amount of quality, and early on too #COYN

Sarota would've been more exciting, despite him being crocked for the last year. I think Abbas is just a known quantity, and he never really set the league alight in the 5 or 6 seasons he was here.

Very well liked by Sydney fans by being a solid, dependable squaddie though.

This whole off season has really put paid to the idea that we can't get Australians to come to Wellington (Ernie take note)

Agree with others who say we have recruited well and that for a change we brought in players with bags of A-League experience.

Let's not forget that we lost Roly, Barba, Moss and A-Rod. The first two didn't set the world on fire last year, but on their day they were devastating and will be hard to replace.  Italiano still needs to prove his worth at this level - and what happens if he turns out to be inadequate?

I am personally not over the moon at Abbas signing simply because I've never rated him that much.  He has a good touch and is quite tricky but I also remember him as very ineffective.

I'm actually quite excited about the season ahead and don't want to give off a negative vibe - I'm just trying to assess recruitment as a whole.

Number of players in starting XI who learned their football in NZ? Two? Italiano and Doyle?

And on the bench: Rufer, Ridenton, Singh.

All of a sudden, it feels like a very experienced A league team located in New Zealand.

I'll agree there. But is it Darije and Rado's contacts (obviously it is for Vidosic jnr) or have Welnix changed attitudes with salaries and contracts? Or is the departure of a lot of the old "leadership" team also a factor - to say something totally at random, maybe no one wanted to be on a team with Vinnie.

Seems entirely down to Rado. Welnix have been increasing investment in the posting squad year on  year

Italiano learned his football in NZ?