Start planning for 2016-17 now

KSK_47 · January 11, 2014

Adrian Madaschi was at the Perth game. Scott Munn spent nearly the entire game talking to him.
Could be a sign...

"seriously Adrian! Look how shit we have become since you left us! Pleeeeeeease come back!"

MaliMate · January 11, 2014

Really we shouldn't have more than 4 CB's in our squad at max. One of Wielart, Gerhardt, Kisnorbo & Vrankovic has to go.

I think logically if we were to bring Madaschi back, one of Wielart or Gerhardt should go (if not both tbh) as we would have a more than capable pairing in Kisnorbo & Madaschi, leaving us plenty of room for Visa's.

Although it's hard to judge because our whole team is basically rubbish, it's hard to justify a Visa spot for Wielart based on what he has shown this season and even PG to an extent.

Tommykins · January 11, 2014

There's a few players that come off contract at the end of this year who should be looked at.

Stuart Holden (will most likely go back to the MLS) - While he's been injury plagued (cue horror from Heart supporters), he's a very good central midfielder and is great going forward, would compliment a Murdocca type really well.

Bobby Zamora - A bit of an up and down striker, but has consistantly played in the EPL for a number of years and always looks a likely type.

James McFadden - Unlikely to move from his club of Motherwell, but has scored very well in then Scottish Premier division and always looks good when he played for his country, not big by any stretch of the imagination, but is capable in the air.

Kris Boyd - Another Scot who had a phenomenal record with Rangers and has recently found his touch with Kilmarnock, has already had a sojourn overseas with the Portland Timbers.

Stephen McManus - 31 year old central defender, very much no nonsense, but plays the ball around when required. Would depend on what happens to the current logjam in defence.

Plenty of talent available, important that the club moves fast though.

stewmac · January 11, 2014

McFadden would stroll the A League , problem is he is made of glass so would likely get injured in a pre season friendly

jw1739 · January 11, 2014

Really we shouldn't have more than 4 CB's in our squad at max. One of Wielart, Gerhardt, Kisnorbo & Vrankovic has to go.
I think logically if we were to bring Madaschi back, one of Wielart or Gerhardt should go (if not both tbh) as we would have a more than capable pairing in Kisnorbo & Madaschi, leaving us plenty of room for Visa's.
Although it's hard to judge because our whole team is basically rubbish, it's hard to justify a Visa spot for Wielart based on what he has shown this season and even PG to an extent.

Wielaert has done absolutely nothing of note except to concede a penalty. Kisnorbo equally culpable - together they threw away 3 points against CCM that could have made all the difference to our whole season. Both should go asap.

I would play Vranks and Gerhardt, and more than happy to retain both of them for next season.

Tommykins · January 11, 2014

Difficult to say on Vranks now, its been about a year since his last senior game (starting), interesting to see where he's at.

Jimmy · January 11, 2014

Would keep:

-Redmayne as a number two.

-Hoffman as a squadie

-Murdocca as a squadie

-Mauk

-Garuccio

-Vrankovic

Everyone else should be cut. But where are the replacements going to come from?

Luke · January 11, 2014

The last thing we need is another big cleanout, what a world of good that did last time

AntiScum · January 11, 2014

I think the club should use its foreign spots on a Goal Keeper, a Center Back, a Midfielder and a striker and use the Marquee spot for and splash the cash on an out and out striker. Then build the team around that. Add to that an Aussie marquee and an under 21 Marquee and happy days. Get the coach right and the rest shall fall into place. This club WILL NEVER AND I SAY NEVER go anywhere until it has a training base and the right people running it!!

Melburnian · January 11, 2014

The last thing we need is another big cleanout, what a world of good that did last time

Hear what you are saying but I see no other option. A new manager will hopefully build his side into his image. Into the way he wants to play. He may retain some but with all the one year deals we have I can see a lot being let go and a lot wanting to go.

Redmayne should stay as number two. I'd move to get a keeper of the ilk of Brad Jones would be immense and really give the whole club confidence.

Murdocca has a contract and at least has a go. Good squad member. Stays.

Kalmar. He's a foundation player with talent. Good squad member. Won't be commanding big money.

Mauk, Retre, Walker, Schroen, Garrucio and Vrankovic should all be given contracts and retained.

That's 8 to the squad. Now you have to nail the internationals and marquee.

There was a rumour of sorts about Josh Kennedy wanting to come home and was in the Heart area. Australian Marquee?

I'd recruit Madaschi as club captain. Guy was brilliant for us when we were at our best and has great leadership.

Victards · January 11, 2014

The real question is: Do we keep Harry Kewell?

IMO, if we can somehow manage to snap him up for another year under 100K a year, id say yeah why not, but really anything over that margin would have to be a no go as he could potentially be a waste of salary cap use (injuries ect whiplash ect)

Melburnian · January 11, 2014

My personal opinion is its been too much drama and a circus.

We gotta get back to a team ethos not about individual players who command the attention.

So a no for me.

The Aardvark · January 11, 2014

So this is what we should aim for:

Keep Sign

GK: Redmayne A number 1 keeper, ie. Brad Jones, possibly VISA

CB: Vrankovic Two senior ones. ie Madaschi and a VISA. Possibly keep one of the current 3 (Gerhardt, Kisnorbo, Wielaert)

FB: Walker A specialist left back and someone who can play either. Would like to give Mitchinson or Petreski a chance at this too.

CM: Murdocca, Engelaar, Kalmar, Mauk A VISA creative mid. Give Retre a chance to prove himself. Aim to get some quality depth here.

W: Garrucio An expericned VISA player with good record ie. Hersi type. Youth.

ST: Kewell A VISA striker with very good record ie. Holt. A young striker to learn.

Guys like Schroen and Retre need to earn their contracts, as does any other current senior player, including those listed above.

We need to focus on grabbing the young guys who are looking for gametime. That's the one thing we can promise them. An opportunity. We pretty much have a blank first eleven, meaning someone like Amini (not saying he is a realistic target) could look at our lineup and know that they will have first dibs on making that position theirs.

And no targeting players like Ramsay that are fringe young players, I want young guys whose development we can accelerate, whether they are currently internationally based, a VISA player in the mould of Broich, or someone like Da Silva or Petratos.

And aim to keep our older recruits to players that can play at the level for at least 3 seasons so we can build continuity. I'm reluctant to sign anyone over say 31 unless there is an obvious succession plan (ie. Ognenovski to Vrankovic) or they offer something extra (I won't knock back an Henry or Holt or someone who could take us to another level).

Edited January 11, 2014 by The Aardvark

Rutherglen Rambler · January 11, 2014

as i wrote in another thread: Who would want to go to the city to watch us play next week when you can paint your fence and watch it dry?

As I replied in another thread: you're a cunt.

Pure gold!

Peter · January 11, 2014

The last thing we need is another big cleanout, what a world of good that did last time

Luke, in general I agree a clean out is not the best option. However, as the rot has set in, anyone not showing 100% towards the cause of the club should go at the next available opportunity. Having said that, the club needs to show respect towards the players in terms of training facilities etc.

I would be in favour of a clean out with the new coach able to set the standard of what is required and then have smaller player turnovers after that to achieve our stated objectives.

NewConvert · January 11, 2014

I find it hard to qualify players at the moment simply because I lost faith in JA last season and therefore the whole team is a train wreck. Poor training, poor tactical development, poor individual development coupled with all the losses means that the players are bereft of confidence.

I note that people have in for Redmayne but lets face it, he probably has the hardest job in the A-League. With defenders making crap mistakes, giving away penalties, etc. of course his record will be awful. And as far as his kick outs and bringing in the ball back to play, well he has the same players to give the ball to. And I don't think that he is any worse than Bolton or Galecovic at AU.

With Kewell I heard that he had a good pre-season but unfortunately he got injured and is trying to return to full fitness which may be another month or so. I'll keep him and assess at the end of the season whether he wants to go through another season or not but only as an impact player and not guaranteed to play 90 minutes - probably more like 30 minutes should suffice.

Of the visa players:

Wielaert - release he is not much better than Colossimo.

Gerhardt - release, he went backwards this season (that will look crap on his CV) but if we are to develop players then it should be locals

Germano - release, played half the possible number of games last season and none this season. I have no idea what injuries he has but I no longer trust players with soft tissue injuries.

Engelaart - Don't know, Broken leg. Let's see what he can do on the pitch, although I suspect that he probably won't reach match fitness until the final three matches. If he wishes to stay then and he does well he should be kept.

Mifsud - release.

Behich is on loan and will return to Turkey at season's end.

Macallister, Hoffman, Kalmar to be released. The latter two have been on the books for years and really have not shown all that much, yes I will acknowledge that they have turned it on a few occassions but by now I expect them to be solid contributors. Yet kalmar can be too slow and Hoffman can be readily outplayed.

Kisnorbo has done some good things, actually some very good things but his lack of discipline is a negative. Not sure.

Likewise I am not sure on Dugandzic, Williams, or Mebrahtu. They have all shown skills on the park but for some unknown reason they have not developed into consistant performers (although having JA as a coach does not help).

The younger players have not seen much game time and I have not been to any NYL games so I can't comment on their performance.

In reality the new coaching staff will have their work cut out trying to fast track the development of the younger players.

Murfy1 · January 11, 2014

The last thing we need is another big cleanout, what a world of good that did last time

Hear what you are saying but I see no other option. A new manager will hopefully build his side into his image. Into the way he wants to play. He may retain some but with all the one year deals we have I can see a lot being let go and a lot wanting to go.
Redmayne should stay as number two. I'd move to get a keeper of the ilk of Brad Jones would be immense and really give the whole club confidence.
Murdocca has a contract and at least has a go. Good squad member. Stays.
Kalmar. He's a foundation player with talent. Good squad member. Won't be commanding big money.
Mauk, Retre, Walker, Schroen, Garrucio and Vrankovic should all be given contracts and retained.
That's 8 to the squad. Now you have to nail the internationals and marquee.
There was a rumour of sorts about Josh Kennedy wanting to come home and was in the Heart area. Australian Marquee?
I'd recruit Madaschi as club captain. Guy was brilliant for us when we were at our best and has great leadership.

Agree with keeping these players, especially the young players. We have some highly rated young players, so Heart should return to being a club that gives talented young players a chance (Adelaide United was furious to lose Mauk and Garuccio, and Mauk, Garuccio, Walker and Vrankovic have all featured in Australian youth squads). Also, most of the A-League clubs that have backed their young players, like Brisbane, Perth and Wellington, have succeeded because they did so, so it can't be said that backing youth is a 'reckless gamble' (indeed, Heart has been the most anti-youth this season, and look where it's gotten us...).

Josh Kennedy and Madaschi would also make solid signings, I reckon, for the reasons Melburnian mentioned.

Then we have 5 VISA spots to use. Heart has not used it's VISA spots effectively across the club's 4 seasons, and this is why:

1) Nearly all VISA players should be midfielders or forwards

2) VISA players should be 'creative' players, who can create chances and sometimes score

3) VISA players should be in the 20 to 30 age bracket, ideally in the 25 to 29 age bracket

On the first point, we failed because we have 2 VISA players that are defenders (Wielaert and Gerhardt). Only Sydney FC also have 2 VISA defenders, most have 1 or less. Brisbane and Adelaide have none, and Victory and Perth only have Contreras and Gallas respectively, which were bad signings. Australia has good enough defenders (just look how popular Australian defenders are across Asia), so A-League clubs shouldn't waste VISA spots on defenders.

On the second point, the most 'creative' players Heart have are Engelaar, Germano and Mifsud. Engelaar is a creative player, but he won't directly create many scoring chances as a DM. Look at other teams, last season of the top 10 assist providers 7 were VISA players (Garcia had the most for us, with 4..., link).

Brisbane has Broich and Miller, Adelaide have Isaias, Cirio, Carrusca, Mariners Flores, Victory Finkler, Wellington Hernandez and Ifill and Western Sydney Hersi and Ono. There aren't too many Australian players with lots of creativity, so Heart needs to sign more good midfielders and forwards, especially playmakers, with its VISA spots, like the other A-League clubs do.

On the third point, just look at the age distributions of VISA players:

Heart 26, 28, 32, 34, 35

Adelaide 24, 26, 27, 28, 30

Brisbane 28, 28, 32, 32

Mariners 28, 31, 32

Victory 23, 23, 28, 35

WSW 24, 27, 29, 31, 34

The A-League is now at a point where VISA players can't merely be journeymen at the twilight of their careers. A-league teams need to have a nucleus of at least 2 or 3 quality VISA players who can be regular starters, who are young enough to provide multiple good seasons, key examples being Broich, Berisha, Miller, Finkler, Neumann, Hersi.

The VISA spots are very important, with many successful A-League sides having most of their starting midfielders and forwards being VISA players. Melbourne Heart can't screw around next season, signing hacks like Steven Gray, Worm and Maycon, or over-the-hill players like Fred and Wielaert. Next season every VISA player must be good, and they must have enough quality so that they'd be default starters (unlike Maycon, Gray, Germano etc).

Some of my thoughts about a real annoyance of mine. Whoever is rebuilding Heart for next season needs to get these fundamentals right.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Murfy1

Melburnian · January 11, 2014

Owe you a like Murfy1.

It's a massive task. One that JD and crew aren't able to rectify.

More importantly for us who is a football manager that can scout the players we need? To build a squad needed to conquer Asia?

belaguttman · January 11, 2014

McFadden would stroll the A League , problem is he is made of glass so would likely get injured in a pre season friendly

does he play golf?

Murfy1 · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.

It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).

Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.

Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.

wombegongal · January 11, 2014

I'm not sure about only non visa defenders only murf. Many solid defenders have been visa players or are ex visa players. Cassio at Adelaide and Adama at the tards to name a few even Matt Smith at Brissy was originally a visa player so they are out there. Patty Z at central coast was also a pillar in that team. I do somewhat agree though that we have under utilised our visa signings and have two visa cb's and a dm is perhaps a little over the top.

I really think what the club needs to do is go out and sign the best Australian players it can who fulfil the following simple criteria (I'm sure the club can add to this):

a- Can pass, trap and shoot with both feet (eliminates half our list as technically inept)

b- Not a selfish player. They test employees these days to see if they mentally fit the mould why not players. (this culture of sacrifice for each other is further driven throughout the club by management and his team.)

c- Finally we use visa players to plug the gaps where we couldn't find a good young player or decent Australian player. with visa players the pool is so large that we can really recruit whatever we need.

The fact that we don't seem to have any criteria and such an ad-hoc recruiting history tells me someone isn't doing their job well enough (or isn't allowed to do their job properly due to others). Which ever one it is JD your next in the firing line irrespective of the boundaries set by owners and coaches. If shit doesn't improve you are as culpable as the rest of the muppets.

jw1739 · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.

It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).

Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.

Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.

IIRC Aloisi and Foxe spent about 3 weeks in the UK/Europe during the off-season and spoke to seven players about coming to play for Heart.

I think it's been said before that it's the coach(es) who do the scouting and JD who deals with the contractual stuff of signings and transfers. He's credited with the transfer contract of our boomerang boy Eli Babalj.

IIRC he said at some stage that the club receives as many as 40 contacts a month from agents peddling players to the A-League.

I suppose my overwhelming feeling at this point is "how did we get it all so wrong?" We did make genuine offers to both Beckham and Grant Holt - albeit those offers were not good enough but they were made. It would seem that someone in the club, or perhaps outside it, was prepared to finance specific bums-on-seats overseas players, but not just any old hack wanting that final year's paypacket. Which is what we ended up with.

The other thing that is pissing me right off is that we are the only team in the league that is unable to lift our game to occasionally get over the line against the weaker teams above us. We play poorly against the top teams, and then even worse against the other strugglers. I can't help but feel that there's an attitude problem - do just enough to get by but no more. I cannot get that "If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" statement out of my mind.

sheepdog · January 11, 2014

First and foremost, the new owners need to make our club attractive to new signings.

Who in their right mind would want to come and play for arguably the worst performing club in Australian footballing history?

Once we know exactly what direction we are taking, then we target certain players to fit the mould.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here

jw1739 · January 11, 2014

IMO we also need to evaluate what we're doing with our NYL squad. It's there to provide a pathway for promising players to graduate to the A-League - are we using it appropriately?

n i k o · January 11, 2014

IMO we also need to evaluate what we're doing with our NYL squad. It's there to provide a pathway for promising players to graduate to the A-League - are we using it appropriately?

When I watched them at the end of last year they were playing exactly like our first team so the link/pathway between the two was perfect for aspiring youngsters to slot right in. True story.

sheepdog · January 11, 2014

IMO we also need to evaluate what we're doing with our NYL squad. It's there to provide a pathway for promising players to graduate to the A-League - are we using it appropriately?

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't one of our initial principles to be a club that promotes talented youth?

If new owners stick to that plan than we re evaluate our transfer targets and plan accordingly.

A few more tough years with progression each year is what we're looking at.

sheepdog · January 11, 2014

IMO we also need to evaluate what we're doing with our NYL squad. It's there to provide a pathway for promising players to graduate to the A-League - are we using it appropriately?

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't one of our initial principles to be a club that promotes talented youth?

If new owners stick to that plan than we re evaluate our transfer targets and plan accordingly.

A few more tough years with progression each year is what we're looking at.

jw1739 · January 11, 2014

IMO we also need to evaluate what we're doing with our NYL squad. It's there to provide a pathway for promising players to graduate to the A-League - are we using it appropriately?

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't one of our initial principles to be a club that promotes talented youth?
If new owners stick to that plan than we re evaluate our transfer targets and plan accordingly.
A few more tough years with progression each year is what we're looking at.

That was what I was getting at. No point in having a succession of talented young players passing though the NYL squad if we keep signing outsiders to the seniors and hence block the paths of the youngsters.

This what we've done with, say, Kisnorbo (blocking Vrankovic) and Ramsay (Garuccio).

Murfy1 · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.

It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).

Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.

Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.

IIRC Aloisi and Foxe spent about 3 weeks in the UK/Europe during the off-season and spoke to seven players about coming to play for Heart.

I think it's been said before that it's the coach(es) who do the scouting and JD who deals with the contractual stuff of signings and transfers. He's credited with the transfer contract of our boomerang boy Eli Babalj.

IIRC he said at some stage that the club receives as many as 40 contacts a month from agents peddling players to the A-League.

I suppose my overwhelming feeling at this point is "how did we get it all so wrong?" We did make genuine offers to both Beckham and Grant Holt - albeit those offers were not good enough but they were made. It would seem that someone in the club, or perhaps outside it, was prepared to finance specific bums-on-seats overseas players, but not just any old hack wanting that final year's paypacket. Which is what we ended up with.

The other thing that is pissing me right off is that we are the only team in the league that is unable to lift our game to occasionally get over the line against the weaker teams above us. We play poorly against the top teams, and then even worse against the other strugglers. I can't help but feel that there's an attitude problem - do just enough to get by but no more. I cannot get that "If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" statement out of my mind.

Agree there's been too much of an emphasis at Heart on signing a 'marquee player' like Beckham or Holt, with the hope that by doing so Heart would flourish on the pitch and off the pitch. Another instance of Heart having a 'saviour mentality' or approach to things.

I also agree about Heart probably having an attitude problem. I really think notions like 'attitude', 'mentality' and 'culture' are overused to explain things. But I do reckon attitude or culture is an issue at Heart, and David Williams phrase '"If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" encapsulates it perfectly. Heart never winning a single pre-season game against A-League opposition further illustrates a poor attitude, as Heart players haven't shown enough motivation to win just 1 of these games across 4 pre-seasons.

Us not winning after falling behind in something like 23 matches I'd also call more evidence of an unimpressive attitude.

Too much of the time Heart players have an attitude where they just try to do the bare minimum, put in some effort in competitive season matches, and if we fall behind, oh well If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose".

Heart having so many players from, I'll just say it, loser teams, probably partly explains the attitude as well. Williams for NQ Fury, 2 players from Gold Coast United in Golgol and Macallister, Mifsud of the Maltese national team..

I'd also say that the attitude extends beyond the players. Organising pre-season matches against university teams and Goulburn and Peninsula 'all star' sides is a farce. Why should the players take pre-season seriously, when the administrators and/or coaches at Heart clearly don't? These wasteful pre-season games are another example of gimmickry and cheap promotion overriding the club's primary concern, football.

Peter · January 11, 2014

First and foremost, the new owners need to make our club attractive to new signings.
Who in their right mind would want to come and play for arguably the worst performing club in Australian footballing history?
Once we know exactly what direction we are taking, then we target certain players to fit the mould.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves here

Why? Who wouldn't want to come and train in the dusty northern plains of Melbourne in 35 degrees plus, set up their own goals and pack up again so they can cool down in a wheelie bin?

AntiScum · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.

It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).

Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.

Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.

IIRC Aloisi and Foxe spent about 3 weeks in the UK/Europe during the off-season and spoke to seven players about coming to play for Heart.

I think it's been said before that it's the coach(es) who do the scouting and JD who deals with the contractual stuff of signings and transfers. He's credited with the transfer contract of our boomerang boy Eli Babalj.

IIRC he said at some stage that the club receives as many as 40 contacts a month from agents peddling players to the A-League.

I suppose my overwhelming feeling at this point is "how did we get it all so wrong?" We did make genuine offers to both Beckham and Grant Holt - albeit those offers were not good enough but they were made. It would seem that someone in the club, or perhaps outside it, was prepared to finance specific bums-on-seats overseas players, but not just any old hack wanting that final year's paypacket. Which is what we ended up with.

The other thing that is pissing me right off is that we are the only team in the league that is unable to lift our game to occasionally get over the line against the weaker teams above us. We play poorly against the top teams, and then even worse against the other strugglers. I can't help but feel that there's an attitude problem - do just enough to get by but no more. I cannot get that "If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" statement out of my mind.

Agree there's been too much of an emphasis at Heart on signing a 'marquee player' like Beckham or Holt, with the hope that by doing so Heart would flourish on the pitch and off the pitch. Another instance of Heart having a 'saviour mentality' or approach to things.

I also agree about Heart probably having an attitude problem. I really think notions like 'attitude', 'mentality' and 'culture' are overused to explain things. But I do reckon attitude or culture is an issue at Heart, and David Williams phrase '"If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" encapsulates it perfectly. Heart never winning a single pre-season game against A-League opposition further illustrates a poor attitude, as Heart players haven't shown enough motivation to win just 1 of these games across 4 pre-seasons.

Us not winning after falling behind in something like 23 matches I'd also call more evidence of an unimpressive attitude.

Too much of the time Heart players have an attitude where they just try to do the bare minimum, put in some effort in competitive season matches, and if we fall behind, oh well If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose".

Heart having so many players from, I'll just say it, loser teams, probably partly explains the attitude as well. Williams for NQ Fury, 2 players from Gold Coast United in Golgol and Macallister, Mifsud of the Maltese national team..

I'd also say that the attitude extends beyond the players. Organising pre-season matches against university teams and Goulburn and Peninsula 'all star' sides is a farce. Why should the players take pre-season seriously, when the administrators and/or coaches at Heart clearly don't? These wasteful pre-season games are another example of gimmickry and cheap promotion overriding the club's primary concern, football.

excellent post!!

belaguttman · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.

It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).

Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.

Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.

IIRC Aloisi and Foxe spent about 3 weeks in the UK/Europe during the off-season and spoke to seven players about coming to play for Heart.

I think it's been said before that it's the coach(es) who do the scouting and JD who deals with the contractual stuff of signings and transfers. He's credited with the transfer contract of our boomerang boy Eli Babalj.

IIRC he said at some stage that the club receives as many as 40 contacts a month from agents peddling players to the A-League.

I suppose my overwhelming feeling at this point is "how did we get it all so wrong?" We did make genuine offers to both Beckham and Grant Holt - albeit those offers were not good enough but they were made. It would seem that someone in the club, or perhaps outside it, was prepared to finance specific bums-on-seats overseas players, but not just any old hack wanting that final year's paypacket. Which is what we ended up with.

The other thing that is pissing me right off is that we are the only team in the league that is unable to lift our game to occasionally get over the line against the weaker teams above us. We play poorly against the top teams, and then even worse against the other strugglers. I can't help but feel that there's an attitude problem - do just enough to get by but no more. I cannot get that "If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" statement out of my mind.

Agree there's been too much of an emphasis at Heart on signing a 'marquee player' like Beckham or Holt, with the hope that by doing so Heart would flourish on the pitch and off the pitch. Another instance of Heart having a 'saviour mentality' or approach to things.

I also agree about Heart probably having an attitude problem. I really think notions like 'attitude', 'mentality' and 'culture' are overused to explain things. But I do reckon attitude or culture is an issue at Heart, and David Williams phrase '"If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" encapsulates it perfectly. Heart never winning a single pre-season game against A-League opposition further illustrates a poor attitude, as Heart players haven't shown enough motivation to win just 1 of these games across 4 pre-seasons.

Us not winning after falling behind in something like 23 matches I'd also call more evidence of an unimpressive attitude.

Too much of the time Heart players have an attitude where they just try to do the bare minimum, put in some effort in competitive season matches, and if we fall behind, oh well If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose".

Heart having so many players from, I'll just say it, loser teams, probably partly explains the attitude as well. Williams for NQ Fury, 2 players from Gold Coast United in Golgol and Macallister, Mifsud of the Maltese national team..

I'd also say that the attitude extends beyond the players. Organising pre-season matches against university teams and Goulburn and Peninsula 'all star' sides is a farce. Why should the players take pre-season seriously, when the administrators and/or coaches at Heart clearly don't? These wasteful pre-season games are another example of gimmickry and cheap promotion overriding the club's primary concern, football.

I've talked many times about our club's anxiety, if you remember it started in season 2 after we had won 5 games straight and were suddenly second on the ladder and being talked about as likely finalists. Suddenly we lost 5 games including our only final. Now we see it appear if we are ever in the lead in a game and every time we are able to shoot on goal. The club that is anxious about success. We talk about a new coach but really the team should make use of a group therapist.

sheepdog · January 11, 2014

First and foremost, the new owners need to make our club attractive to new signings.
Who in their right mind would want to come and play for arguably the worst performing club in Australian footballing history?
Once we know exactly what direction we are taking, then we target certain players to fit the mould.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves here

Why? Who wouldn't want to come and train in the dusty northern plains of Melbourne in 35 degrees plus, set up their own goals and pack up again so they can cool down in a wheelie bin?

My point exactly

malloy · January 11, 2014

Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.
It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).
Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.
Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.