Transfer Talk - 2018/19 Season

Tratt coming back is a huge win. 

Back line in good shape. 

Now let's sort this midfield. 

A good keeper and two quality defensive midfielders. The two holding mids are so vital to linking defence and attack in a 4-2-3-1. Sydney could have all the Bobos and Ninkovics in the world, but without O'Neill and Brillante they're screwed. Newy had Ugarkovic and Kantarovski, who were brilliant all season. There was daylight between these two and the other eight teams last season, and a huge part of that is down to their defensive midfield duos. Both teams played some fantastic attacking football but the reason they were so far ahead was their abilities to slog out 1-0 wins. It's why we narrowly lost points on so many games, we had no presence in the midfield. Hope to see two very good imports, perhaps from the same country so there is already potentially some chemistry there

I don't wanna get ahead of myself but...... I've got a good feeling about this season.

Daniel McBreen also trialled, unsuccessfully, with us, IIRC

Krishna and Corrales trialled at the same time as Astrauskas. Not really "overseas" but would have been imports.

From the game tonight I think De Jong would be a good sig

Central/Defensive mids who are currently free agents. Difficult to speculate on obviously because of the sheer number of free agent players, not knowing how much the Nix would spend, not knowing what Rudan is looking for in his players but here are some that I found interesting

• Guillaume Gillet - Belgian, 34. Last played with Olympiacos in the Greek league but played most of his career at Gent and Anderlecht in the Belgian League. Brief spell in Ligue 1 with Bastia
• Dean Marney - English, 34. Notched up over 250 Championship matches and almost 100 in the Prem. Has just left Burnley after an 8 year stint
• Mark Davies - English, 30, has just left Bolton after an 8 year stay. 120 Championship matches
• Michael Essien - More possible than it seems, 35 now and has just left Persib Bandung in the Indonesian League. Don't know what his fitness is like now, but the man used to have a ridiculous engine in his Chelsea days and would still be a rockstar signing.
• Karl Henry - English, 35. A real hard man, bit of a cod but a real proven veteran of the game. 127 games in the Prem, 326 in the Championship across more than a decade playing for Wolves, QPR and Bolton. Perhaps too old, but definitely experienced and of Taylor ilk
• Rostyn Griffiths - Australian, 30. Much closer to home, already proven to be decent at A-League level. Would happily have him in midfield as he is good for A-League standards but wouldn't take up and import slot.
• Mark Milligan - Australian, 32. Same deal as Griffiths, but weirdly seems even less likely than us signing any of the imports

Tratt back is what for Gulley?

Dean Marney would be a good shout, would be a top player at the A-League level despite his age. A NZ connection as well. Apparently has some interest from lower level English sides but with his age and recent injury, the relative short length of the A-League season could be enticing.

Reliable source tonight:

Tratt is news to some at the club, the door is always open but the folks I spoke to don't believe he's in a state to walk through it.

Possibly one or two more signings next week if the stars align.

Bugger. I did think it was strange that he would be suddenly coming after that article a couple months back.

From what it appears (and this could be completely wrong) Tratt was suffering from depression, given that I would be surprised if he came back to Wellington, not because he doesn't like it, but it's just part of his life he's moved on from and going back can possibly send you backwards and given he has very little support network here, I'd be surprised of he came back.

The fact is it came from the covert agent - who everyone knows is an agent and usually decides to like or diss depending on the rumour that is put out and whether or not they like it. 

It probably means Tratt is looking at a club like Sydney, Wanderers, CCM or Newcastle and talks on wages have stalled so they need a rumour of another club to boost the wages offered

Good find RR. 

Good pedigree, played for Poland Champions in the Champions league group stages. Seems to have been frozen out by new coach. Could be a good signing. 

Talking with a Polish WSW fan on Twitter, he thinks its a pretty meh signing. Not strong, not fast, not a play maker, just will do what the coach says. He fell out of favour when his team changed to a coach that wanted to play with fast short passing & he wasn't up to it.

We might just have to trust Rudan on this one.

Might be comparing him to the Polish/Champions league level rather than A league. Will be interesting to see how he does here. 

[/quote] I think us only having 27 games a season is a real draw card for us, and we should be looking a championship players who are a little older and who want an easier gig. Sell that and the lifestyle, I know Wellington can be cold but we have a beautiful city and culture which nothing in Britain is similar to. Gotta be some gems in there who would come on a cut deal if it means that they can keep playing for longer and live in a nice place 

[/quote]

29 or 30 I would hope, not including FFA Cup.

That might be just what we need. Let Singh be the playmaker, we got others with the pace and strength. Could see him have an 'invisible' role, a la Gilberto Silva or Makelele

Do we need to use an import slot for that though?

good age, decent comp... looks ok, and that's just one person's opinion so who knows.

I did wonder why anyone believed "Covert Agent" after his "Rob Morrison sells Nix to SW Sydney" fake news. Dude's just trolling us now.

His strike rate isn't awful so I choose to believe him when he says things I like and not believe him when I don't want what he says to happen.

With Galloway gone, there's room for both.

It's very premature to assume that Tratt's coming back.

He lives!!! (Boxey that is).

Not that I disagree, but can we please put a world-wide ban on comparing players to Gilberto and Makelele like it's 2002.

That role doesn't really exist a whole lot in modern football anymore, though I feel like it's slowly coming back with the Kante's of the world.

An 'invisible' role? Surely Nix fans should call that a "Tim Brown"

Re: the Polish guy, the comments on his FUT card are less than positive

Hope either they're wrong, or Rudes can get something decent out of him

tbf those are exactly the same complaints our designated scapegoats have always copped when they have generally been key to any success we have had.

Sounds like a perfect Ridenton replacement then.

Is he Vinnie in disguise?

Totally agreed, probably the most important player in a modern team outside of a consistent goal-scorer. This quote about Busquets sums it up:

"If you watch the whole game, you won't see Busquets—but watch Busquets, and you will see the whole game."

Would still be the second highest rated player on the Phoenix (https://sofifa.com/team/111766), and would definitely be above average for the league, so hopefully he only looks bad because he's playing in a very high quality team and he can turn it on for us

I understand that ahaha, let's go with Vinnie or Brown 2.0

The optimist in me is saying that Rudan realises how effective Brown was in that role, and has plucked someone out to fit that mould perfectly for us

Arsenal just brought in Torriera specifically to play that role as well.