Transfer Talk, Rumours and Speculation

[n i k o]

11 minutes ago, haz said:

Cmon Niko to need to save these for Simpsons only week soon

I just needed a quick hit, couldn't help myself. 

[Heart of oakleigh]

3 hours ago, hakz7 said:

You don’t wanna be the first entry in the bullshit watch for the new season?

Cmon @Tony999! green lines could be on the horizon. What did Dario have to say?

[haz]

 

 Doubt it.  But oh God please be us!

[fensaddler]

14 minutes ago, haz said:

 

 Doubt it.  But oh God please be us!

I just have a gut feeling we're going to do something big... 

[haz]

8 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

I just have a gut feeling we're going to do something big... 

Still doubt it, I don't believe rumours until the player is holding up the city shirt

 

..... But imagine, Budzinksi or Ribery. Hmmmm

[Missing_Moy]

We do need a left winger 

[[LIBBA]]

If we make asia, i think we'll make a statement by signing a big name Asian footballer and the only one that comes to mind is Honda.

 

 

[belaguttman]

Ribery could earn x10 as much money if he went to China

[SF33]

On 30/04/2018 at 5:17 PM, jw1739 said:

Certainly Petrillo's job ought to be on the line. It was Munn and Petrillo who went to Manchester to discuss players we required. Munn has other roles in the club but Petrillo is head of the Football Department and IMO he made some major stuff-ups this season.

Anyway, seems like departures will be announced very soon. https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/04/30/arzani-staying-put-vanquished-city-begin-rebuild

Can't say I'm heartbroken by any of those probable departures, although I wouldn't mind Jakobsen, Mauk and Fitzgerald staying, if possible. But it's a matter of seeing what we get in return, really.

Kamau, Tongyik, Budzinski etc...whether we like them or not, Joyce pretty clearly gave up on them (or never rated them) anyway, so we may as well try someone else in their spots. 

[Heart of Melbourne]

Jacobsen is injury prone. Move him on.

[neio]

I'm a Jakobsen fan, but if the choice came between him and Gulum. I'm taking gulum, I rate him really highly. Takes no shit and doesn't take a visa spot for someone who is roughly the same quality 

[[LIBBA]]

16 minutes ago, Heart of Melbourne said:

Jacobsen is injury prone. Move him on.

Didn't want to see him go, but  his injuries have hurt us the last couple of seasons now and imo, may have been the difference if he started against Newcastle. Seems no one has mentioned that fact in the media or a host of other massive talking points. Clearly they have all been blinded by the dick glitter of Mcgree goal and Newcastle being the "fairy tale" story

Love the bloke, but i think if we can get a decent replacement, i'd be happy to see him moved on

[SF33]

8 minutes ago, Heart of Melbourne said:

Jacobsen is injury prone. Move him on.

I'm not against him staying or going (as long as we get someone good back) really, provided he gets the all clear when he undoubtedly gets checked out at the end of the season.

I don't doubt that we could get a better (or at least comparable and more durable) visa player than him, but right now, I think our squad is talented enough to do better than what the results of the past three seasons have yielded and I think that part of the problem is too much unnecessary turnover each year. And, as so many ill-conceived visa signings over the years have shown, while we could do better than Jakobsen, we could also do a hell of a lot worse.

To (hopefully) explain my point a bit better: while I have a lot of confidence in the talent of the squad, there's barely any players in it that I would consider 'untouchable' (Bruno, Bart, Arzani, maybe Brattan). But I don't want to start yet another season with about six new faces in the starting 11. We need a few tweaks, not an overhaul. And I think those tweaks can be achieved by recruiting cleverly to fill the spaces opened up by some of the more obvious departures.

[jw1739]

No doubt Jako is a good player, but you need your visa and marquee players on the pitch every match if you're going to win anything. Older players are not necessarily injury-prone, but as we age we take longer to recover, and that is now his problem. I would have thought that we would have learned this lesson by now, so given that Jako is out of contract I think we'd be better off not to re-contract him.

I don't like to see a player like him depart, but the A-League is the A-League with numbers and salary caps and we have to be pragmatic.

[[LIBBA]]

38 minutes ago, SF33 said:

I'm not against him staying or going (as long as we get someone good back) really, provided he gets the all clear when he undoubtedly gets checked out at the end of the season.

I don't doubt that we could get a better (or at least comparable and more durable) visa player than him, but right now, I think our squad is talented enough to do better than what the results of the past three seasons have yielded and I think that part of the problem is too much unnecessary turnover each year. And, as so many ill-conceived visa signings over the years have shown, while we could do better than Jakobsen, we could also do a hell of a lot worse.

To (hopefully) explain my point a bit better: while I have a lot of confidence in the talent of the squad, there's barely any players in it that I would consider 'untouchable' (Bruno, Bart, Arzani, maybe Brattan). But I don't want to start yet another season with about six new faces in the starting 11. We need a few tweaks, not an overhaul. And I think those tweaks can be achieved by recruiting cleverly to fill the spaces opened up by some of the more obvious departures.

100% agree.

For me, defence (including Bouza)doesn't need to change besides Jacobsen.  Gulum would be ideal as he then gives us another international to play with. If Bouza keeps his improvement levels up 

Need an creative no 10 to complement Brattan in the middle of the park. I g'tee you'll see an even better season out of Brattan if this were to occur. Ninkovic would be who i'd be going hard for especially if Adrian and Bobo stay. George would be another to consider as he has been probably the second best mid in the comp this season and that Victory  already have Troisi and Gypsy in the Marquee spots.  Not to mention the added bonus of the but hurt factor to the tards.

forward 3 of Arazni, Vidosic and Bruno speak for itself.

[GreenSeater]

43 minutes ago, [LIBBA] said:

100% agree.

For me, defence (including Bouza)doesn't need to change besides Jacobsen.  Gulum would be ideal as he then gives us another international to play with. If Bouza keeps his improvement levels up 

Need an creative no 10 to complement Brattan in the middle of the park. I g'tee you'll see an even better season out of Brattan if this were to occur. Ninkovic would be who i'd be going hard for especially if Adrian and Bobo stay. George would be another to consider as he has been probably the second best mid in the comp this season and that Victory  already have Troisi and Gypsy in the Marquee spots.  Not to mention the added bonus of the but hurt factor to the tards.

forward 3 of Arazni, Vidosic and Bruno speak for itself.

Would be happy with this starting XI:

 

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Malik - Brattan

Ninkovic

Arzani - Fornaroli - Vidosic

[Imtellingyou]

Gulum is good. However, he was mostly either injured, substituted  (!?) Or red carded.

[[LIBBA]]

6 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

Would be happy with this starting XI:

 

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Malik - Brattan

Ninkovic

Arzani - Fornaroli - Vidosic

I'd be happy with that.

Let the Malik/Brattan bromance coninue 

[Missing_Moy]

10 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

Would be happy with this starting XI:

 

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Malik - Brattan

Ninkovic

Arzani - Fornaroli - Vidosic

I like this line up but I’d rather see Malik as first choice on the bench for the simple reason that with the limited bench space  he is a perfect sub can play ok in many different positions DM RB CB etc.. 

But in saying that he was in our top 3-4 players this season so logic is a little flawed

Edited May 2, 2018 by Missing_Moy

[Jovan]

If we want to improve we need 3 A grade starting players  (visa). I get the stability argument but we are pretty 1 dimensional with the above list.

[Embee]

19 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

Would be happy with this starting XI:

 

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Malik - Brattan

Ninkovic

Arzani - Fornaroli - Vidosic

Would probably swap Vido with Ninko in that 11.

Also, that team only has 3 VISA's, I'd be looking for a strong, box to box midfielder type of VISA to fight with Malik for that spot next to Brattan, still leaving us one VISA to use in any way we see fit.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Embee

[Tony999]

20 hours ago, hakz7 said:

You don’t wanna be the first entry in the bullshit watch for the new season?

I'm the one who brought you that Franjic was coming to City months before everyone knew and Jamieson too. But I talk shit remember? Oh well, like I said, I'll let MCFC do the announcements 

16 hours ago, Heart of oakleigh said:

Cmon @Tony999! green lines could be on the horizon. What did Dario have to say?

Not into green lines anymore. I now require cash in hand.

[jw1739]

27 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

Would be happy with this starting XI:

 

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Malik - Brattan

Ninkovic

Arzani - Fornaroli - Vidosic

Not a proper winger in sight? And you need 5 good visa players, not 3.

Don't get the love for Bouzanis and Vidosic. They're OK on their day, but go missing too often.

Edited May 2, 2018 by jw1739

[Embee]

26 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Not a proper winger in sight? And you need 5 good visa players, not 3.

Don't get the love for Bouzanis and Vidosic. They're OK on their day, but go missing too often.

In fairness to Dario, he registered 9 goals and 4 assists in 26 games , that's a pretty good return for a guy who spent most of his time out wide, a position which IMO is not his best. Not to mention the mid-season disruption of moving clubs/countries.

As far as Bouzanis, I think people just acknowledge that he's an average keeper at this level, both in ability and likely pay-grade. Who in this league is significantly better than Dean? Young, Izzo, MAYBE Janjetovic but he has his howlers too. Every other keeper is largely erratic and significantly reliant on a solid back 4 in front of them, put Redmayne in goals for Brisbane or Perth for example and watch the goals leak through like they did when he played for us.

Dean's also pretty young for a goalkeeper and could still potentially improve. Unless you could somehow get a Jamie Young or Paul Izzo (not happening) or perhaps one of the international Aussie keepers overseas like Federici (would probably command a large pay packet) then it's not really worth replacing him. I'd prefer to run with Dean and if possible Delianov as the #2, spending Galekovic's wage in other areas of the squad if he's happy to leave.

 The other option could be using the 5th VISA spot on a keeper, but again, how much money would you be willing to commit to that spot?

Edited May 2, 2018 by Embee

[Heart of Melbourne]

What's novillo up to these days ???

[Tony999]

9 minutes ago, Heart of Melbourne said:

What's novillo up to these days ???

I think someone sent him a twitter msg asking him to come back and he replied if the club wants me I'll come.

[Dylan]

Lol imagine Novillo working with Wazza

[haz]

21 minutes ago, Tony999 said:

I think someone sent him a twitter msg asking him to come back and he replied if the club wants me I'll come.

 

5 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Lol imagine Novillo working with Wazza

Sorry to spoil the party, he's just signed with a Malaysian team

[SF33]

3 hours ago, jw1739 said:

No doubt Jako is a good player, but you need your visa and marquee players on the pitch every match if you're going to win anything. Older players are not necessarily injury-prone, but as we age we take longer to recover, and that is now his problem. I would have thought that we would have learned this lesson by now, so given that Jako is out of contract I think we'd be better off not to re-contract him.

I don't like to see a player like him depart, but the A-League is the A-League with numbers and salary caps and we have to be pragmatic.

I suppose the other thing that doesn't sit comfortably with me is he's the captain. Kisnorbo aside, I'm a bit tired of one-year wonders as captains.

[rass]

I like Vidosic, I think he became a crucial cog in our structure this season simply because if his aerial ability - he was the go to outlet for Bouzanis and the target at set pieces.

... But when you look at the squad on paper, I don't know how he will fit next year. Apart from the above assets and good technical ability, he did go missing a bit in games and don't think he was as damaging in general play/attacking build ups as he could've been.

He strikes me as more of a complementary forward to Bruno rather than a winger or #10; the two positions we really need.

Said it before, but I liked the look of Rodriguez at Jets, though not sure about his contract status or overall fitness. Would be a terrifying mix with him and Arzani on each wing. I think we need to look overseas for a #10. Someone definitely in the mould of Ninkovic who is so creative yet does a power of defensive running.

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by rass

[GreenSeater]

2 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Not a proper winger in sight? And you need 5 good visa players, not 3.

Don't get the love for Bouzanis and Vidosic. They're OK on their day, but go missing too often.

Well I was basing it off the players we have as well as two which are highly likely acquisitions, however if I’m posting what I actually want them:

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Arzani - Brattan - Ninkovic - Ribery

Fornaroli - McCormack

 

However I don’t think this is anywhere near as realistic as the one I posted before. Also not sure what you mean when you said no proper wingers in sight when I named Arzani who is the best young winger in the country...

[jw1739]

27 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

Well I was basing it off the players we have as well as two which are highly likely acquisitions, however if I’m posting what I actually want them:

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Arzani - Brattan - Ninkovic - Ribery

Fornaroli - McCormack

 

However I don’t think this is anywhere near as realistic as the one I posted before. Also not sure what you mean when you said no proper wingers in sight when I named Arzani who is the best young winger in the country...

IMO Arzani will ultimately be better in a more central role.

Anyway, it's all speculation until we know who is being let go and who, if anyone, is going to be re-contracted.

[playmaker]

22 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

IMO Arzani will ultimately be better in a more central role.

Anyway, it's all speculation until we know who is being let go and who, if anyone, is going to be re-contracted.

There is a problem having Azani in a deeper wing role as suggested previously because he is not very good at tracking back plus his value is in attack and central as you suggest regardless on who we recruit. 

Given Wazza's style I think recruiting a marquee DM with the ability to fire rockets from outside and 2 good quality visa left and right mids.

[neio]

The main thing I want from next season apart from an obvious strong first 11, is some real pressure from the back ups. For too long players have got a game cause there is no alternative

We desperately need a back up striker who can come on and make a difference, give us an alternative to Bruno 

 

With obviously the squad restrictions it makes player recruit very important, Malik is an important player as he can play different roles. I'd also be looking at Liam Rose for the same reason

[Imtellingyou]

Ribery would be lonely.  Let's pair him with Robben. LOL

[haz]

3 hours ago, GreenSeater said:

Well I was basing it off the players we have as well as two which are highly likely acquisitions, however if I’m posting what I actually want them:

Bouzanis

Atkinson - Schenkeveld - Gulum - Jamieson (C)

Arzani - Brattan - Ninkovic - Ribery

Fornaroli - McCormack

 

However I don’t think this is anywhere near as realistic as the one I posted before. Also not sure what you mean when you said no proper wingers in sight when I named Arzani who is the best young winger in the country...

If this was our team, I would fry my computer from all the jizz

[Forever City]

 

[jeffplz]

Nice!

[Deeming]

There's the worst kept secret the club has had since the take-over

[jw1739]

Well, well, well. So at this stage Galekovic, La Rocca, Jakobsen and Budzinski survive. And Bozanic too.

Disappointed that we've lost Fitzy. Always gave it everything he had.

Edited May 3, 2018 by jw1739