Transfer Talk - 2018/19 Season

TL;DR Transfer Update

Rosters Spots used: 15/23
- Smith was re-signed on a Scholarship contract (Sauce)
- 2/3 u20 Spots filled

Visa Spots used: 4/5
- Krishna has lodged his Citizenship paperwork & awaiting decision (Sauce)

Confirmed Transfers:
Michał Kopczyński
Filip Kurto
Mitch Nichols
Steven Taylor
David Williams

Rumoured Transfers:
- Rudan vocal about needing another DM (Sauce)

Confirmed Trialists:
Andre De Jong* (Hakoah Sydney)
Callan Elliot (Tasman United)
Justin Gulley (Team Wellington)
Joseph Harris (Seattle University)
Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi (Auckland City)
Alex Rufer* (Wellington Phoenix)
Jack-Henry Sinclair (Team Wellington)
Peter Skapetis* (Central Coast Mariners) (AU)
Jacob Tratt* (Sutherland Sharks) (AU)
Joshua Wallen* (QPR) (AU)
Liam Wooding* (MetroStars) (AU)

Rumoured Trialists:


* invited to the GC Camp (Sauce)

Well we certainly have an interesting squad and manager, and I'm prepared to be quite bullish at this point! 

mmmmm..Tratt.

Possibly just me but my brain is imploding over this way of approaching things. 

Of course we're asking them to go "pretty well". If Burns and Krishna don't go well, we won't make the playoffs, even if others are signed. They are high level players in this league, and they're our two key forwards.

I don't see any logic in calculating players' outputs per season based on their full careers, especially if that includes some poor phoenix seasons, and placing that number in the context of a hypothetically good season. 

If we play well and succeed, then most of our players will have close to their best ever career seasons, regardless of what signings are made from here. 

I LOVE these updates you're doing RR, thanks for the great work

Pretty sure it's Mmmmm Bop

Ben Waine has also been invited to GC camp, why doesn't he get a mention.

Rufer got a mention.

Granted he has played A-League before, but some might argue BW is better that AR.

And is Waine any less likely than Elliot or JHS? If Calvin Harris wasn't injured would he gave merited a footnote?

Still, appreciate the effort for the SOTN updates.

oh, and this is not just a preseason run. Any of these players could feasibly play in FFA cup game

Peter Skapetis - A talented player who has been hampered by injuries. He was picked up during the Mark Hughes era at QPR - sat in the U23's but never made it. MH then went to Stoke and his academy staff took him over there as well. 

ACL injuries on both knees. I know he did one ACL at Stoke which severely limited his chances for them, I can't recall whether he did the first one with us. The worst thing about ACL injuries, is you never really recover fully from them. Once you've done your ACL, the risk that it'll happen again is really high - so he's a gamble for a lot of clubs.

Joshua Wallen who's trialing for the Nix at the moment was in our U23 development squad but released this year. I don't know too much about him, but he got loaned out to various clubs - the lasted being Chelmsford FC who are in the South National League (i.e English 6th Div) where I don't think he even really played. When you've got players like Clayton Lewis (ex-ACFC) on the fringes of Scodhorpe (i.e 3 div's higher) - Joshua Wallen doesn't seem like he'll be good enough for the Nix.

Te Atawhai HW was sidelined 9 months after tearing his ACL. Fingers crosssed.

Anyone heard anything re: TAHW's injury?

Hope Rudan is casting a wider net than that. There are likely more talented players in the top half of the NI who haven't even been considered, for geographical reasons alone. 

Trialists to date (thanks RR)

Andre De Jong* (Hakoah Sydney)
Callan Elliot (Tasman United)
Justin Gulley (Team Wellington)
Joseph Harris (Seattle University)
Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi (Auckland City)
Alex Rufer* (Wellington Phoenix)
Jack-Henry Sinclair (Team Wellington)
Peter Skapetis* (Central Coast Mariners) (AU)
Jacob Tratt* (Sutherland Sharks) (AU)
Joshua Wallen* (QPR) (AU)

Liam Wooding* (MetroStars) (AU)

If Tratt and Skapetis sign that would make 17 players.

One possible formation:

17 players above, all with A-league standard passing, touch, and vision (Kopa and Taylor on reputation, and Fenton and Lowry, when last sighted).

Must sign three more before the season starts, including one under-20, to meet the requirements of a minimum squad size of 20 and three under 20.

Could sign another three, but if no suitable players are available, I'd rather Rudan waited. 

GK - suggest a third keeper only be signed if he ranks above Sail. Frees up an extra outfield slot.

Fenton - has played in just about every position, back, mid, winger, even CF once, and including lots of starts on the L. Could be a useful sub.

Skapetis - can cover CAM as well as LW and RW. Another useful sub, vying for a starting spot.

Questionmarks over Skapetis (knees) and Nichols (top two inches) - but at least they are talented and capable of winning matches.

One or two import slots left - top priority another top quality DM; second, a striker.

It's possible other Australians will show up at camp, now that the squad is looking stronger and has an Australian flavour.

Honestly I'm not the most clued in on the Weenix but is Ben Waine one of the better crowd? Always thought Ebbinge was the best from what I've seen but he does seem like a highlight reel player, don't think any are better than Rufer yet of course

I know this has come up before and one of the mods said someone involved with these guys didn’t want them coming to the Phoenix. Just been thinking about this, what other options do they have? The Nix is a pro set up so I can only reduce that they are either ok with playing at Ole or are heading elsew

Apparently Rudan has been looking through the Victorian NPL for a few players.

According to my mate that plays in Melbourne, we’re interested in Troy Ruthven, a defensive midfielder from Bentleigh Greens, this seems to be him, looks like he scores a few: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-XAMOy6J0; and Brandon Barnes, a striker from Dandenong Thunder who’s been scoring for fun this season.

Could be worth looking through the Australian NPL, particularly Victoria and NSW. They were talking up a boy from APIA Leichhardt during the FFA Cup coverage the other night.

Slater talked up Parkhouse too 

Used to play for Waitak and Easts, was pretty good. Would be an import yes?

Brandon Barnes was out here playing for Eastern Suburbs when they won the Northern League/Chatham Cup double in 2015, and is English, so would be a visa player. Interesting.

Edit: Too slow^

Yeah that was the boy, reading reports online he seems to be one of the top players in the NSW NPL?

http://websites.sportstg.com/team_info.cgi?pID=201199488

Brandon Barnes has 20 goals so far this season in the Victorian NPL, having scored bucket loads in the 2nd tier the last couple of seasons http://websites.sportstg.com/team_info.cgi?action=pID=201199488

Statistically, Bozo is the best poster on YFF. Two posts, two words, both true. 100% accuracy.

Are you saying they’re not good players?

If you’ve seen the NPL in Victoria, there’s not much difference between NPL 1 & 2. Altona are going to be promoted and made it through to the final round of FFA Cup qualifying so they can’t be that bad. Ruthven single handily won Bentleigh the grand final over South Melbourne a few years back - would say he’s in the 2nd tier at the moment due the $$$ he’s earning, which you can’t blame a part timer footballer.

Barnes has scored more than a few this season, saw him play once this season and he bagged a breach. Is fairly solid though but strong at holding the ball up. If we’re looking at these two boys it would make sense because they’re positions we need back up in with the current squad we’ve got.

.. And Jordan Murray looks pretty good, currently top scorer in the NSW NPL, 19 goals in 18 matches. The standard looks a fair bit higher than the Handa prems. Skillful striker, manages to score a few with his head.

I just hope that Rudan has enough time on his hands in his job like el grap, do do a proper analysis

And determine 

We need a gun striker 

And I just thought it might be good to mention just how prolific Barnes has been in Aussie, the guy has been finding the net regularly for years. Here is an article Goal run about him from 2016 http://www.goal.com/en-au/news/4039/state-leagues-and-more/2016/06/03/24223732/npl-record-breaker-targeting-a-league-contract

Or this Adelaide City striker, Anthony Costa, 24.

From an old highlights vid, looks like big old-fashioned striker, strong, good in the air. Averages a goal a game, sustained over many seasons. Top goalscorer in the SA NPL. Not much of a passer by the looks of it, and not my type of player, but worth bringing on if the tricky interplay isn't working. 

Andrew Nabbout scored but more importantly created goals for Newcastle last season, until the transfer. Made a huge difference.

Have you tried to book an electrician in Wellington lately?

Why no Burns?  I would suggest throwing in Williams and/or Nicholls initially as as subs only until they get more familiar with the team, especially if Burns or Krishna need to be subbed.  

With your possible formation shown above, you are left with Krishna, Singh, Cacace and Doyle (plus Dura if he makes the field) as the only players sufficiently familiar with each other, perhaps Tratt being an exception. 

Sure, we have better individual players than we did last year, but they may not add up to a much better team as yet on day one.  I would not expect much from the first few games in the season in such case until the team gels.

I‘m just reading that book about statistics in football, and I hope he uses one these services when he hires players. Watching some videos is not good enough. Arsenal paid a tranfer of 7 figure € to BVB to get their head scout.

Harsh! No I don't hate any player. Dislike a few, but not Mr Burns. It's just the he didn't score in 15 games last season, and struggled to beat his man. Last year Williams got a goal every three games, mainly at l wing. Career wise, he's played striker half the games, and lw and RW about a quarter each. 

So, yeah, who do you pick based on that? 

Hope Burns can find his old form. Maybe he has already.