Transfer Talk - 2018/19 Season

De Jong is a goal scorer tho? Good if we play false 9 and working with the wingers, butters and Singh? At least I hope that's the outcome!

Edit:And read it properly. 

So we sign Tratt, de Jong and djite\Yoo. What squad gaps does that leave us with? TAWH?

Leaving out the possibility of a marquee hail Mary

Goalscorers (ranked by goals per game) in the Handa, 2017/8 below.

Players in the news in bold.

Didn't think much of De Jong in India, but his stats were surprisingly (for me) good last year - better than Tade and Krishna did over a period of years. Plus team-of-the-year in an NPL must mean something.

J-H Sinclair surprisingly good too, for a R wing back. Not many games, so take with a grain of salt. Worth adding? Fenton, Lowry and maybe Tratt already contesting RB though.

Lots of NPL players are averaging about a goal a game. Some of them might be better bets, even though the best - Wenzell-Halls and Murray - have gone.

No surprises with the other bolded players' figures.

This

Bringing in players from another professional environment surely ticks a few of Rudy's boxes

Paul Ifill, bring him back!

Wow that's harsh on Collier. For a first year MLS rookie he did well at Chicago. Played 16 games (7 as a sub) - that's way more than expected. Sure Chicago had injury problems etc, but coaching staff there obviously see something in him. 

The MLS is also a few steps up from the A League.

Like me I doubt you have seen any of his limited games at Indy Eleven - so how can you say that he has been really poor there?

Anyway is a bit of a left field idea, but worth looking at by Rudan trying to get either of these guys in on loan. 

Good news that Nix are seriously looking at a quality attacking marquee option - but have serious doubts that they can pull it off.

I have a feeling Tonya was talking about Obafemi... Now what? ?

Tonya please save us ;(

Well we need to bring in a "Name" player to increase the bums on seats. Someone non hardcore football fans have heard of. Someone affordable. Ronaldinho !! 

Let's see if this throw away comment gets picked up by the media.......

Plays the drums well, plus the Wellington celeb circuit would get two WAGS for the price of one.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/6363846/ro...

Tidy wags too. This guy has all the skills, footballer, womanballer, drumballer. Brilliant move for Domey to make!! Patrick could get drumming lessons whilst the rest of us salivate over R's two women.

he could also interview them?

Steven Caulker is available. Give us a rock solid defence and options and only 26

Not a striker

Caulker would be a great signing for the bars in Courtney Place, but not a great signing for the team.

There's a reason my non-Phoenix team Dundee sent him home from pre-season training in Portugal then left him on the bench when clearly he was our best defender...

Watched him closely for Dundee when he was there though, he was the biggest signing we've had since Caniggia, and he was great. 

Yeah 'mon LG - we both know the lad has/had the potential, but sadly his mental health and addiction issues outweigh the pros. 

Giuseppe Rossi?

There must be a quality Spanish 2nd Div striker looking for a chance!!

At ACFC, yeah.

Could always see if Brockie wants to came back on loan ....

Is it too early for #RudanOut? 

Dimitar Berbatov. Been without a club since March and only 37 (haha)

Oh no wait, he played for Spurs............I couldn't handle that

Waayyy too early for that. But it is fair to say that the match vs WSW this weekend is a must win.

Have we picked a scapegoat for this season? Why not Rudan?

we're coming in under the radar, but still keeping the faith 

Can't blame Rudan solely for the lack of signings - our history, lack of money and a clear future are bigger scape goats IMO.

I suspect that Rudan is fast finding out why it's been so difficult for quite a few coaches to turn things around here in the last few years.

An updated  list of top goalscorers in the eight Australian NPLs for the current season, best (IMO) first.

Top two have signed for other A-league clubs.

One has played in La Liga.

They've all scored 0.9 goals/game or above.

Could be that the VPL and NSWPL are better than NZ; ACT and Tas a bit worse, and the other NPLs about the same.

Krishna got 0.64 goals/game in the NZ prem; wonder it any of these would do as well as him at A league level?

Kalu not looking so bad at the moment huh?

Don't think we've really upgraded from any of the imports we had last season tbh - except for Rossi. 

I remember a big striker, whose touch was not his best point, charging after the ball while defenders passed it round. Unlike his replacement, at least he stayed onside.

He had one excellent season, in the A league 2012/13 but has been statistically dismal before and after, in all leagues.

What about this guy.  He has the right name :)   Wellington

Do you honestly think any coach could be doing better recruitment business at the Nix in 2018?

It's not Rudan's fault that previous coaches (and management) have damaged our brand to the point that local semi pro players won't even come here or, in thecase of C. Peverley, actively mock us.

For me, the only question mark over Rudan is the Poles and the Korean who haven't impressed yet, but I'll wait before freaking out.

Have we actually signed the Korean, or is he still trialing?

If Rudan could reestablish a good reputation, it'll be easier for anyone following him

I think Rudan's insistence on ridic long trials for players, including ones which have already been in a pro environment hasn't been good for recruitment.

I also reckon that this loooooong ass time of not actually signing anyone 'because he wants the right players' means the player pool shrinks and shrinks and shrinks. 

Without the major changes to the competition rules, we're dead in two seasons. Even with the FIFA mandated changes, we might still be dead anyway. 

We've spent last season rebuilding a squad that wasn't great into a squad that was actually worse - and we've not done anything so far that implies we're any better than we were at the end of the 2017/18 season, let along be any better than 2016/17. 

Like I've said before, this is a free hit for Rudy. But I'm finding his conservatism weird tbh.

If he fails it's 'well Mark, it's the fudgeing Nix ya cod, nobody can save them' from his mates at Fox and in the Aussie football world and he goes back to state leagues and waits for another job to come up. 

I've seen a club go through this phase the Nix are in. Basketcase administration and a churn of coaches left a squad which was about 20% of each coach's idea about what the team should be, none of which fitted with each other or could be moulded into something that was close to a competitive team. 

Relegation helped, actually two relegations - and then three years of lower league stability - players left and you got to start again. But to do that you need a coach who's willing to put the youth players in and access wider player pool than the current coaching staff are willing to.

We're fishing in an evaporating A-League player pool, with no fishing rod.

The one thing we've got over the Aussie clubs is the NZ leagues and would our overall squad be improved by the best players from that league, er, yeah. But the club isn't attractive to them because it's seen as a risk, or the coach has judged them not good enough because they don't measure up to a yardstick which has so far signed us Butters and David Williams. 

Ha, and people think you're negative. I want the Nix to be successful, but unless we're about to sign up about five or six players that connect the weird odds and sods squad we've got - I don't see it happening. 

I'm hoping I get this post quote tweeted to fudge at me as we qualify for the playoffs though, and I'll deserve it too.

Hard to disagree with any of the above. I don't think I've been this pessimistic heading into a season. Watching us live v Bentleigh made me worry, and it's just got worse from there.