Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

Most of our squad and all of our foreigners are off contract at the end of this season.

You must be high!

Cassano, Song, Diaby.

Even the wages of Buijs and Gleeson would be out of wack with what we are willing to pay.

Guys, I've said it in another post already, but signing Cassano would be the worst move the club has ever made.  

His head just isn't in it.  Google what he did at the start of the season.  He signed with Verona, retired, went back again, left again.

He is arrogant, volatile, presumptuous and just too old and slow. Anyway, I don't think we'd have to worry.  Apparently he turned down an offer from China (megabucks obviously), so the meager salary we might be able to offer him surely won't do.

Would keep Krishna, Ljujic and maybe one of either Paracki or AK - probably AK as that means Ljujic is more likely to stay. But honestly I think Kalezic has the knowledge and connections to land bigger fish than Rossi, Paracki and AK. We can't always go for the cheap options every year, look at the quality of the rest of the league's imports. I know we're not the most ambitious of clubs, so for the sake of my argument i'll make what i consider the big four wealthy clubs exempt from my point - Sydney, WSW, Victory and City. I get it, they're desirable places to live (not west Sydney I know but) and can offer far bigger wages than we can. But then you look at clubs who have traditionally been sharke in the past few seasons, the calibre of players they manage to pull. CCM have the Dutch duo of Wout Brama and Tom Hiariej, both of whom were Eredivisie regulars. Perth have Xavi Torres and Diego Castro who have had long careers playing in the top two divisions of Spanish football. Newcastle picked up Ron Vargas and Pato Rodriguez who are both Godly. I know big league doesn't always equal better player, and AK was doing great for a little while. But surely if we throw more money around we could get a better striker than one from the lithuanian league

Therein lies the problem. I don't think we have the money to throw around. 

Saprong came from where - the league is not always a great sign of quality - Forneralli is quality, but prior to the A League his states was less that stellar.

For sure. We have by far the worst recruitment in the entire A-League IMO. Xavi Torres and Castro in particular were La Liga regulars at mid-table clubs, Castro in particular was a club legend and still good enough for the La Liga clubs outside the top 3. We're poaching Croatian relegation candidates, lower league Aussies and Lithuanian league players. Rossi is one I'm really happy with, Serie A quality throughout most of his career

Of course, saying this, if they're making such a big step down in their career to come play in our dead end league, they can't be too hopeful about their future talent and career

One thing I think we forget is that there are a massive amount of out of contract pros all over the World who are of outstanding quality and would jump at the chance to play in this league without busting our pay structure.

My personal view is that the club is badly connected. Relying on the coach's contacts betrays this.

I'm not sold on any of our imports. But to be fair on them, they are being asked to play in a team that can't.

Do you perhaps mind naming a few in the Speculation thread, especially Australian and New Zealand visa players.

Vinnie Lia must be close to qualifying for a Supergold if that counts?

Hard to disagree too much with HN's list of ins and outs. Mullen looked a good squad signing at the start of the season and has proved solid enough to get another year. I thought Galloway would be a great signing but has proved to be sharkhouse. Can see him being given a new contract though.

Wholeheartedly agree with DJ Sarpong above, our recruitment of imports just isn't good enough. We sign bang average players who don't necessarily do much wrong, but don't necessarily stand out either. I for one would send Paracki on his way. Again, a solid enough player but solid probably isn't good enough to be holding onto an import slot.

Can someone who watches even a wee bit of Handy Prem (as I don't see much) explain to me why someone like de Vries never got given a go yet we persevere with guys like Parkhouse who is so out of his depth its embarrassing. Even guys like JHS, Gulley and Fenton are making us look silly for letting them go now.

He'd be 'appiah somewhere else?

Agree - our imports are not showing themselves as genuine match winners as yet

Krishna has.

Kaluderovic would have been showing it in the early season when he was scoring for fun if the rest of the team wasn't leaking goals left right and center. He's dropped off recently, probably due to the injury.

Worst signing by far.

*cough* Totori *cough* ...  It'd be a close run thing...

I think your post perfectly sums up that you can't recruit players by league always - and that there are bargains out there from less fancied leagues.  Didn't Berisha come from 2.Bundasliga?

nah, Totori was an up and coming player who got no assistance in making the (large) step up to the A-League. Sarpong on the other hand came with a reported rep that he had done it and would slot in no problems and disspaointed massively

you spelt Toto wrong

we will need to pick someone left at the end to turn the lights off I think.

Both are good A-League imports and when you consider they both play at the pointy end of a team that doesn't run well, they have done well this season.

However, when you look around, you've got a recent Irish international at Perth playing next to a mid-table La Liga superstar, a bunch of established Eredivisie players scattered around the league and a dude at Sydney who might possibly make a very powerful Polish World Cup squad, then our 2 best imports don't compare

Berisha had a decent, but not great pedigree. He was signed from a very strong Arminia Bielefed who were one of the better 2. Bundesliga sides at the time. However he was not a first team regular. Earlier in his career he played 12 games for Hamburg in the 1. Bundesliga, then flopped at Burnley.

Most teams are like that, there's uncertainty around the composition of squads next season. Also, turns out Krishna has an extension.

Half the league is off contract! I may have missed some but this is the current list of off contract players http://yellowfever.co.nz/posts/1226262

according to arsene wenger, short term contracts are the way of the future. he makes some sense in his analysis too. but then he goes an re-signs mezut ozil for a billion pounds a week for the rest of eternity

Fenton is also here next season as well.

I can see a buy out on the cards if he plays in Melbourne like he did at TWs

you think he played well for TWs?

Dont resign Klaud, Galloway, Italiano, Rossi, Durante and i'm 50 / 50 on McGlinchey - he will be on good coin, but would need to take a massive cut to be worth it.

Short memories... Johnny Chen & Lei Lei Gao FTW

When was the last time McG put together a consistent run of games?  Been a passenger for two seasons now

KEEP: 

Keegan SMITH

Dylan FOX

Tom DOYLE

Liberato CACACE

Daniel MULLEN

Matt RIDENTON

Sarpreet SINGH

James MCGARRY

Nathan BURNS

REPLACE:

Lewis ITALIANO

Tando VELAPHI

Oliver SAIL

Scott GALLOWAY

Ryan LOWRY

Marco ROSSI

Goran PARACKI

Alex RUFER

Michael MCGLINCHEY

Adam PARKHOUSE

Matija LJUJIC

Andrija KALUDJEROVIC

Logan ROGERSON

UNSURE:

Monty PATTERSON - Simply too early to call, seems closer to sharkhouse level than Krishna level but at the same time definitely better than sharkhouse - probably a keep, we need numbers at this point

Roy KRISHNA - Breaks my heart to see how in a matter of weeks he's gone from busting his gut on the field to refusing to play. If its true he wants a 3 year contract then for f u cks sake give the man 3 years. If he goes then he goes, guess its all up to him though really. 

Andrew DURANTE - yes he is ancient now and no where near what he once was, but his performances have really picked up and he always plays with so much heart. The biggest point for me though is if he leaves the club will have no identity. He's the last survivor of the "glory" days, a hangover from a time when you could ask a random Wellingtonian who are some Nix players and they could name at least 4 or 5. Hell, some actual Nix FANS can't even name the whole squad now. And its not just clinging on to the past, its because we haven't replaced the Siggys and the Tim Browns or the Paul Ifills. Dura is the Totti to our Roma, the John Terry to our Chelsea (albeit without the racism and shagging of teammates wives).He's our Captain, and if we are going down, then I want him on the ship to the very end

His whole time here has been disappointing 

Is a shame for him he went to Japan, must have been close to getting Australian citizenship at the time.

DK saying it comes down to "natural selection". Doesn't sound like most of the 15 off contract will be here next season.

I want to see us using 2-3 visa spots on defence next season. There's a shortage of quality Australian (and Kiwi) defenders lying around and the ones that come to the A-League don't go to Wellington.

When a club like the Victory has guys like Broxham filling in back in defence, it's a real indicator of depth (or the lack thereof).

With Galloway not convincing anyone, Rossi with seemingly out the door, people going lukewarm on Paracki, Krishna yoyo-ing between here and Colorado and AK either injured or out of form, there are a LOT of first-team spots up for grabs, especially visa spots.

Starting XI next season 4-3-3 formation.

New Goal Keeper

Not sure on rightback

Fox

New Centre Back

Doyle

Ridenton

New Centre Midfield

Ljujic(Heard he signed for Melboure Knights to get some gametime in the of season)

Krishna(If he stays) if not Fenton

AK9

Burns

Do you agree?

Fenton - based on what? 

I would also have McGarry and Mullen in the unsure category. I don't think Mullen is as good as Dura at CB, a bit quicker but that's about it, and not a great FB. He's a decent squad player given his ok in a couple of positions. I would also move Ljujic into unsure, he looks like his has decent technique and athletically decent too, its hard to judge his effectiveness given the level of the team's performance.