2017/18 Transfer Speculation

I really like Broich (have the DVD doco of him), but we have Finkler and WeeMac signed up already with Kosta and Krishna also able to play on the wings.

That's a shame, if true, that he may not be able to play top level football. I would have nothing against him if he had signed for a NSW HAL team, actually hoped he would be able to, if that allowed him to take care of whatever personal issue he has.

Mark Birighitti on loan from Swansea?

Fair enough, I've obviously been misinformed on that point.

Wow, nutmeg addiction really IS one hell of a drug.

I'd also expect him to chase a big pay day somewhere and probably price himself out of the A-League. Considering 25% of his wages could be outside the cap I'd think the only team that could make it work with the prices he'd want is Brisbane, even if it's as a player off the bench.

By the reports Brisbane haven't even made an offer and the fans are up in arms about it.

fixed

And yet I would not be surprised if Ernie turns up coaching at Newcastle Jets next season.

Personally I think the managerial appointments were poor and showed a real lack of ambition from the club. Although some of the old guard (Moss, Lia, Smeltz) will present us with some gaps, it's not necessarily a bad thing. We've become so reliant on these playesr we've neglected properly looking at alternatives. 

The next manager will be the most important signing we can make as not only will it define our shape/way forward, but it may (depending on who it is) attract players who were otherwise uninterested.

Quickly judging solely by players on the first page (who are out of contract), there are plenty of players would could look at:

GK - Micahel Theo / Reddy (aside from his recent escapade he's been decent in goal)

Defence - Dylan McGowan (if he doesn't go to Europe), Rhys Williams (Rumoured Victory), Scott Neville (Rumour Glory), Risdon (Rumoured WSW) or even Alan Baro

Mid - Mitch Nichols, David Carney, Carrusca, Ninkovic 

Attack - O'Donovan or Jamie Maclaren (both are long shots I know) or Bobo

Obviously some of them are dreams, but not all are unrealisitic. 

Have a 'this' for a first post! 

Haha cheers bud. I ghost here relatively regularly and just decided I needed to vent for a change.

Even Melbourne City, with all their global reach and scouting networks (and money!), appointed their assistant manager when their manager quit.

Theo is past it, not even the best keeper at the Roar and that's saying something considering what their reserve keeper has been like. 

O'donovan was also confirmed at Jets I thought? I'd take Mclaren in a heart beat, he'd be out of our price range I expect.

Appreciate the complexity of the situation, I just don't think it was handled as well as it should have. Appreciate as a short term fix they were put in place, but I think/wish that the club should've/would've identified potential targets to replace Ernie. A bit like how Southampton have their "Blackbox" - without (obviously) anywhere near the of the resources.

How do you know they haven't? Dome's talk about a quick appointment suggests they know wasssup.

Theo's ok (still better than Italiano/Sails imo), but yeah, on his way out. Was purely using him as an example based on the out of contract players on the first page. 

How do I know they haven't? Umm because they put Greenacre and Des in charge instead?

And their coach quit for personal reasons when the team was doing reasonably well, so you can see why they might want continuity. We were in a big slump so the argument for fresh ideas from outside the club was much stronger

We should sign old Ned, Mackie and sylla from QPR. They would be good at this level.

But they were never going to make a long-term appointment in December??? Or do you mean they should have been keeping tabs on people so they could move instantly once Ernie left? In which case, still limited options? Putting a temp duo in until season's end by far the best move, and wasn't a long way away from working.

Also it's very unlikely that any other coach would suddenly get us into the top 2/3

This,unfortunately

Possibly. But again, it comes down to whether there was anyone of the right calibre at that time. Guess the trade off for delaying signings is the potential for more candidates to pop up. Either way it is a gamble. But I'd rather make sure they get the best candidate possible/available. Because there is also the potential for a December choosen coach to stink up the joint and set us back another 6 or 12 months.

I also think Des and Chris did a good job and wouldn't be as disappointed if one or both got the job as I would have been a few months ago.

They got a bit of a new coach bounce at the start but said that they wouldn't make too many changes to the team while they were caretakers, once they were confirmed there was a bit of a slump but towards the end of the season the team was doing pretty well. 

It's a reasonable assumption that the slump that we did have was the players adjusting to the tweaked game plan and new ideas. 

Roar had a great home record this year, yet we beat them. We also bet Victory 7-6 across the season despite having two games away to them. If we did make the finals with the form that we were in I wouldn't have been surprised if we went quite far.

THERE'S ONLY ONNNNNNNNEEEE JAMMMIEE MACKIE!

The latter. Southampton's model is that they have a list of potential candidates scouted and prepared in advance. I know we're not even remotely on a similar playing field in terms of investment, but when Ernie left, it came across as a short-term only fix putting Greenacre & Des in charge until the club could find someone more long-term. More along the lines that if it worked out great, but if it didn't no biggie.

I know they inherited a tricky job, but I would've preferred to see us get the next potential manager in as early as possible, so they could access the squad thoroughly for the remainder of the season, then at the end of the season they would know where we needed to invest/move on - as opposed to now where it feels like we're frantically trying to decide on a manager; as the quick fix didn't go as well as hoped. 

We should've already had a successor lined up  and in place so that when the season came to a close, we could focus solely on new transfer targets... instead of trying to do everything all at once. 

Can we keep manager stuff in the approprate thread please.

I was saying the other day that it's a shame Leo Villa from Teedubs isn't 5 years younger. Reckon he might have been able to do a Riera. 

Southampton also has the advantage of having Europe next door, where only a handful of jobs can be realstically considered 'bigger' than their one.

Obvious from his comments he knows or at least has a very different, but equally reputable source to Nelfoos.

Someone email or facebook Tratt and ask. Might try it myself.

There's absolutely nothing fishy going on though, I can assure you.

I'm reminded of Mirjan Pavlovic and his "illness that prevents him playing pro football". Pretty clear what that meant in retrospect, but hopefully not a similar problem with Tratt. Best of luck to him.