Transfer Talk - 2018/19 Season

big difference is... HOnda isn't as injury plaqued and will play most weeks. Rossi,  who knows with his knees.

Honda was playing for milan for a while.   was definatly a star in the asian confed.   part of the criteria might be how much of an effect it is likely to have and the Japanese market is a big one.

but most likely it is because we are the Nix

Futhead scores for all current marquee players, and Rossi

Rossi – 79

Honda – 78

Fornaroli 76

Ninkovic 75

Castro 75

Bautheac 74

Oriol Riera 73

De Jong 73

McCormack 71

De Laet 71

Vargas 71

Troisi 70

Diawara 68

Honda also played in the last worldcup. 

I think I read that Martins would have gotten some assistance from the marquee fund if we'd signed him but not the 1-1 ratio that a "class a" marquee gets.

Free agents aren't exactly common around this time of year, and in terms of strikers Rossi is definitely the most notable and probably best out of the ones available (that aren't geriatric - Keane and Berbatov are available but I don't want a 38 year old up front). Nasri's the only attacking player notable enough to be a marquee apart from those three. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/vertragslosespieler

Alternatively, we could look for players whose contracts end on January - this is what I think we'll be doing. Brazilian league, or any number of other North American/South American/Asian leagues (could be looking at a couple MLS or Chinese league players?). The only ones I'd see the FFA spending big on are David Villa, Fernando Torres and Ezequiel Lavezzi, but other options include Graziano Pelle and Jonatan Soriano (Basti Schweinsteiger too if we want an alright replacement for Kopa). https://sofifa.com/players?lg%5B%5D=39&lg%5B%5D=20...

No but it does give mindshare and this is an advertising budget more than anything else.

For me this stinks all over. They contributed 1.6 mil towards Honda right? Pretty sure we were asking the FFA for something not even half of that. You can't tell me that Honda is twice as good and twice as marketable as Giuseppe Rossi. Don't forget there are huge Italian communities in Melbourne and Sydney, he would 100% be a bigger player than Honda. Its horseshark. 

Agree with looking for players whose contracts end in January - however all of the players mentioned are on INSANE money and would never even contemplate playing for us - I mean Graziano Pelle is on Euro 16M per season!!!!

Actually quite happy the deal with Rossi fell through - as much as I love the player, I don't think he would have been right for us (mainly because of injury concerns).

 Maybe a definition of class A marquee is that they'd never consider signing with the Phoenix!

Rossi hasn't been in the international frame for a while right?

Why would the FFA want to pay a million dollars for a player who may only play 1 game and blow a knee?

Rossi is too injury plagued... if it was your money, would you spend it?

The FFA will have loved the idea of more AFC eyes on the comp. with Honda too.

Rossi would have been fantastic. But a taller central striker would work better with our current forward mix who are all quite short. That would give us a bit more presence/option in attack and someone to aim for when our wingbacks are delivering high balls into the area.  

I'd be happy with Luca Toni

It's a shame we don't have a visa spot available, because Big Marko Futacs would be immense with our forward line.

Six foot 5, mobile and loves a goal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1rk%C3%B3_Fut%C3%A1cs

bringing in a player with a great pedigree and goal scoring record, with a strong appearance and performance rating in his contract would. We aren't going to be able to sign players like Honda easily. Melbourne has the crowds and the money. We may need to sign someone with injuries woes. Sometimes they'll have a Pantelis season, sometimes they'll have a Burns season. 

You can't manage risk to zero. You need to take calculated risks to win sometimes.

Rossi not coming here it seems, FFA didn't see him as an A-class marquee - not sure how they work that out - his record equals if not betters Honda's.

At least we know the Nix management and Rudan are actually looking at a decent marquee for January, which would suggest Krishna's residency must be close.

A consistent  goal scorer who will fit our tactics more important than a name in my opinion.

The article is a whole lot of "No comment" and fluff and not much else, it doesn't prove he is not getting it anymore than we know if he will. His case is with immigration and its a matter of if they decide that the time he spent overseas going back to Fiji and playing internationally will count against him or not for time in the country.

Anyway, even if he doesn't get it we might still release Kopa to free up a visa spot in January?

I'd like a Stein-type - tall of stature but with a good technique and can actually play football. We really just need someone to take Williams spot and take the pressure off Krishna.

One of the tactics seems to be to get Taylor forward into the box sometimes when we've got the ball wide, not just off set pieces. 

It's a good tactic, he seems to win the header basically every time; the problem is that we never really seem to have anyone to come on the end of it. I think a guy like Nichols would be good at getting on the end of those loose balls.

Possibly we ll see two tens at some point? And either a back two or one less DM

I think that once we are happy with our defensive stability, one of Rufer or Mandi will come out for Nichols - especially at home.

I know this question gets raised here from time to time but what the hell ever happened to Eli Babalj? Big physical striker, surprisingly good ball skills and the sort of guy who would be a decent signing in the absence of a big name striker. Don't know who he's connected with at the moment, what his state of health is, whether we are/have been interested him or he interested in us but I really rate his ability and reckon he could be a good fit for the Nix.

Injuries and overhyped. Ruptured his ACL and was out for 182 days.

Past Guest Contracts in the A-League: Fred, Simon Elliott, Franny Jeffers, Michael Bridges, Kazu, Sutee Suksomkit, Romario & David Villa

So the criteria for that seems to be all over the place.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas -Played Championship, still young, Tall, centre forward -club might be able to afford.

Given Rossis injury record reckon the FFA may have saved us much angst