WPM 2023/24 Squad Speculation, Confirmation and Mutual Termination

Nothing loosens the tongue like an overpriced pasta meal in Petone...😄😄😄

Mainland FC

The rumour might have started after one of the Wellington City Council releases about pavement tripping hazard outside the Phoenix HQ.

On the bottom of some promotional material:

Watching the Phoenix may be hazard-
( and the printer cut off the remainder)
ous to your health. Please consult medical professionals if you need assistance.

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

coochiee

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

Yeah 100% let the aussies make that dumb signing. Happy to see him in the A-League if he is with someone else. If you have a free 10 mil or whatever he costs for the exposure thats all good but I don't think he is genuinely looking to play good football or put in the hard yards at training 

I don't know, Sydney has apparently slashed their budget this season, Perth is ownerless, and the Victory are under a huge pile of debt. Not many clubs can afford to be reckless right now.

Judging by that article that we're still helping to pay for the Jet's wage bill, we seem comparatively flush. Not that we're going to sign him because comparatively flush doesn't mean flush.

My guess is he'll go to a league that can afford him, like the middle east or the MLS.

anaveragestem

coochiee

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

Yeah 100% let the aussies make that dumb signing. Happy to see him in the A-League if he is with someone else. If you have a free 10 mil or whatever he costs for the exposure thats all good but I don't think he is genuinely looking to play good football or put in the hard yards at training 

He could play at about 10% his actual ability and still piss this league.

Hazard would be amazing!!

Buffon II

anaveragestem

coochiee

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

Yeah 100% let the aussies make that dumb signing. Happy to see him in the A-League if he is with someone else. If you have a free 10 mil or whatever he costs for the exposure thats all good but I don't think he is genuinely looking to play good football or put in the hard yards at training 

He could play at about 10% his actual ability and still piss this league.

maybe 10% of his ability when he was in his prime. He was genuinely one of the best in the world with Chelsea.
 
Have you seen him recently?? Pretty sure his last club was actively trying to get rid of him because he was underperforming.

For me he screams of a guy who is after a holiday to live out the twilight of his career. He'll have about as much impact as Nani did and probably get regularly injured. 

anaveragestem

Buffon II

anaveragestem

coochiee

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

Yeah 100% let the aussies make that dumb signing. Happy to see him in the A-League if he is with someone else. If you have a free 10 mil or whatever he costs for the exposure thats all good but I don't think he is genuinely looking to play good football or put in the hard yards at training 

He could play at about 10% his actual ability and still piss this league.

maybe 10% of his ability when he was in his prime. He was genuinely one of the best in the world with Chelsea.
 
Have you seen him recently?? Pretty sure his last club was actively trying to get rid of him because he was underperforming.

For me he screams of a guy who is after a holiday to live out the twilight of his career. He'll have about as much impact as Nani did and probably get regularly injured. 

You cannot compare Eden Hazard to Nani. I know he's had a torrid spell at Madrid but in no way is it similar to Nani who arguably was last properly good 10 years ago.

anaveragestem

Buffon II

anaveragestem

coochiee

anaveragestem

I'll eat my hat if Eden Hazard signs for the nix

I read somewhere he's travelling with an 'entourage'. So if it's the A League it's Sydney or Melbourne.

Yeah 100% let the aussies make that dumb signing. Happy to see him in the A-League if he is with someone else. If you have a free 10 mil or whatever he costs for the exposure thats all good but I don't think he is genuinely looking to play good football or put in the hard yards at training 

He could play at about 10% his actual ability and still piss this league.

maybe 10% of his ability when he was in his prime. He was genuinely one of the best in the world with Chelsea.
 
Have you seen him recently?? Pretty sure his last club was actively trying to get rid of him because he was underperforming.

For me he screams of a guy who is after a holiday to live out the twilight of his career. He'll have about as much impact as Nani did and probably get regularly injured. 

To be fair, underperforming for Real Madrid isn’t quite the same as underperforming for Venezia in a relegation battle.

Just think of all the pun headlines that the Nix would get if we signed him

Look guys, not to be a Debbie downer but surely what's actually happened is someone has misread Eden Park Fire Hazard in relation to the fire alarm going off at the stadium last week in the World Cup and it's all rapidly gotten very out of hand...

We need the club to bury it's differences with Callan Elliot and re-sign him. My thing is ball winners. It's great having entertaining full backs but we need left and right defenders who win the Duels and make interceptions. Kelly-Heald (I like him, works well with the midfield) but at this moment he doesn't cut it from a ball winning perspective. Al-Taay appears not to be much of a ball winner either.

I know, I've seen one game in which they made their club first team debut's, this is just first impressions.

That said, this was an NPL side, you can't be an A-League player and win only 40% of the Duels. You can't be A-League and only make 10 challenges.

Just an edit to be fair on Al-Taay; he made 18 challenges in 59 minutes and won 56% of them. Still that allows crosses/passes to be made 44% of the time. Elliots record last season and the season before was much better.

I’ll be annoyed if Al-Taay ends up at RB a lot. Not why he was brought in. 

Whether it’s Elliot or a different player we need good RB cover. Or perhaps just a starting RB to be brought in even. 

Had a cursory glance over at Transfermarkt and saw there are two Aussie RBs currently out of contract; Fran Karacic and Antonee Burke-Gilroy.

Of these two, I'd prefer Karacic but I can't see him joining us, let alone coming to Australia. ABG is already based in this part of the world, but I can't say I've seen enough of him to be convinced either way.

Getting Elliot back is obviously the best choice, but who knows what the relationship between him and the club is like atm.

Zawada's agent saying other clubs are interested in him
https://www.soccernews.nl/news/ex-twente-spits-heeft-clubs-voor-het-uitkiezen/

RR

Zawada's agent saying other clubs are interested in him
https://www.soccernews.nl/news/ex-twente-spits-heeft-clubs-voor-het-uitkiezen/

Would be truly sharke losing him in August.

kungfu panda

• RR

  Zawada's agent saying other clubs are interested in him
  https://www.soccernews.nl/news/ex-twente-spits-heeft-clubs-voor-het-uitkiezen/

• Hugely disappointing.

not sure I understand who or what you're disappoined with? his agent doing his job? Zawada, who seems to have done nothing? or just the article in general?
Sure it would be sad if Zawada was to go elsewhere especially at this stage of the season, but the club woud make some cash out of the deal and I'd hope they'd have someone on their radar as a replacement.

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK (Duncan) that I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

How do you watch AP and go, "yeah I don't rate him"

Jazzy Jeff

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

How do you watch AP and go, "yeah I don't rate him"

I was talking about Duncan not AP.

Ranix

Jazzy Jeff

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

How do you watch AP and go, "yeah I don't rate him"

I was talking about Duncan not AP.

I am not at all concerned re Duncan.  I firmly believe they rate Paulsen as their number 1 keeper.  In my view, he should have been in the side over Sail towards the end of last season as well.  Duncan has been signed as a journeyman A-League GK who could do a job if called upon.  We were never going to get a top keeper from anywhere without a guarantee of the starting spot. 

Would really like to see some movement in the defensive department. It's been a tad lacking (a lot lacking) since long pins left and I'd really hate to see us struggle in the middle of the table due to us being unable to keep goals out.

Also I really do rate our young keeping superstar, I think he's gonna be great, but it would be super unfair on him to have us concede chance after chance yet again. You can't keep everything out.

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK (Duncan) that I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

Why are you assuming Duncan is replacing Sail? 

Ryan

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK (Duncan) that I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

Why are you assuming Duncan is replacing Sail? 

 my post is comparing players out to new signings or lack there of.

Ranix

Ryan

Ranix

I'm starting to get very concerned about this season coming. A rookie coach. Quite a few top quality departures at the end of last season. And our recruitment has been worrying. 
Take out Lewis, Ugakovic, Sail, Elliot, Sasse, even Maragus.
Replaced by a GK (Duncan) that I don't rate, a midfielder who struggled for minutes at the Jets, and a couple of academy boys promoted.
Now talk about our top goal scorer departing.
Hmmmmm...........

Why are you assuming Duncan is replacing Sail? 

 my post is comparing players out to new signings or lack there of.

But when we're promoting from within, then the post is disingenuous. 

I don't understand why you sign Al-Taay and hype him up as a ball-winning midfielder similar to Devlin only to test him at RB. We should try to resign Elliot.

We may or may not sign a defensive mid, but if we will be sticking with this midfield, that midfield looks like it could switch off and get easily overrun at certain points of the season which may be costly. Hence, I hope we do sign a visa CB. Someone who will lead from the back and ensure everyone stays sharp on their feet (including our captain). 

I would let go of Wootton tbh. He was good when he first joined but slowly faded to become an average A-league defender. Use his spot on a CDM.

I really think that we do need a quality, local backup striker. What happens when Zawada gets injured? Whether its from the academy or national leagues, we just need a proper 9.  Although, I do agree that they are different types of players at different stages of their careers, OVH does not bring the same presence as Waine. 

Saying all of this, I hope the players prove me wrong!

We've had 1 game. Let's wait a few more weeks before the doom and gloom please.

NZPhoenixFan

I don't understand why you sign Al-Taay and hype him up as a ball-winning midfielder similar to Devlin only to test him at RB. We should try to resign Elliot.

We may or may not sign a defensive mid, but if we will be sticking with this midfield, that midfield looks like it could switch off and get easily overrun at certain points of the season which may be costly. Hence, I hope we do sign a visa CB. Someone who will lead from the back and ensure everyone stays sharp on their feet (including our captain). 

I would let go of Wootton tbh. He was good when he first joined but slowly faded to become an average A-league defender. Use his spot on a CDM.

I really think that we do need a quality, local backup striker. What happens when Zawada gets injured? Whether its from the academy or national leagues, we just need a proper 9.  Although, I do agree that they are different types of players at different stages of their careers, OVH does not bring the same presence as Waine. 

Saying all of this, I hope the players prove me wrong!

Yeah if we could release Wootton I would but doesn't seem like that'll happen. Surprised there haven't been any signings since Duncan we still need a backup RB, Import CB, and another forward minimum. And If we lose Zawada another Import ST.

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

How are they defining tackle? It clearly doesn't include all challenges. If it means slide tackles then it doesn't surprise me that Wootton would be close to the bottom.

kungfu panda

• mrsmiis

  Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 
  
  He won five tackles all season.
  
  Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

• Just to be fair. In the recent cup match he played 73 minutes, made 5 challenges and won 4 of them. 
• You can compare that to Payne, who played 132 minutes, made 22 challenges and won 16.

How are they defining tackle? It clearly doesn't include all challenges. If it means slide tackles then it doesn't surprise me that Wootton would be close to the bottom.

Re: your last point, I think the definition of 'challenge' from your data source would also take into account loose balls, jockeys, etc. whereas I believe 'tackles' here may refer strictly to winning the ball from someone's controlled possession

mrsmiis

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

Would explain why he was a terrible but in the ALM Fantasy comp!

mrsmiis

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

Maldini - "if I have to make a tackle, then I have already made a mistake"

I'm not a huge fan of Wootton, but I don't think tackles are a clear cut stat to determine a defenders impact.

mrsmiis

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

In the words of Paolo Maldini "If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake." ;-)

billyspleen75

mrsmiis

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

Maldini - "if I have to make a tackle, then I have already made a mistake"

I'm not a huge fan of Wootton, but I don't think tackles are a clear cut stat to determine a defenders impact.

It probably is a fair metric when your team conceded as many goals as we did last season.

Monto

billyspleen75

mrsmiis

Just on Wootton - saw a stat this morning. He had the lowest number of tackles won per 90 of any defender or midfielder in the league (average is 1.1, Wootton's is 0.3). 

He won five tackles all season.

Needs replacement if we even want to think about climbing up the ladder

Maldini - "if I have to make a tackle, then I have already made a mistake"

I'm not a huge fan of Wootton, but I don't think tackles are a clear cut stat to determine a defenders impact.

It probably is a fair metric when your team conceded as many goals as we did last season.

Someone else who doesn't know Maldini then