Defibrillator

Bang on Japiedog. Watching a replay of the show early this am with my 10 year old son and he turned to me and asked what the hell is going on. Out of the mouth of babes!! Trying to work out why it pissed me off so much.? For a show that prides itself on tactical analysis, you had two of the form sides of the competition go head to head with one being demolished. To not recognise what has tactically probably been one of the most stark turnarounds in A-league history over the last 6 weeks should be highlighted by the show and again used to reinforce the argument about the importance of the management. To ignore it is really poor. But what angered me more is that SBS have repeatedly talked about Hearts lack of identity - Les and Fozzie both. So now we have the result of the round and a chance for the spotlight we were blithely ignored. What do you have to do to be noticed?? In a chip on my shoulder kind of way, it reinforces one of the reasons why I like this club - underdogs. When we ultimately achieve success playing a good brand of football, it will be so much sweeter. I now know we won't get the recognition we deserve, and frankly we will have achieved without any media help. It should only steel our resolve.

From what I'm hearing JVS is impressing the new owners with his management and development focus. I think if he's knocked out of the post it will be by someone exceptional. The worry for me is that a "name" replacement will more than likely be used to working with a high profile proficient squad - something not found in the A-league. In my mind what is needed is someone who has good skills in player development and improving skills etc. as well as tactical and game day nous. JVS has shown this and is quite prepared to improve players and not rely on the finished product. Some managers don't have the skills to start from a low base. And from what I'm hearing about our Marquee budget, don't worry about funds. Rumoured to be well north of 2 million spread over the 2-3 marquees made my jaw drop and Mooy outside this. Still needs to be quality - but compared to where we've come from this will be a great ride.

Away for weekend and just checked in and fuck me!! 3-0 and on fire. Loving the subdued Kiwi accent from the commentators. Heard yesterday Billy Germano has a niggle - groin. Not serious I'm told but given his history a conservative approach taken. And FFS 4-0!! Looks like a good week to rest him!!

Or the other way around - Germano has a better scoring (and assist) record than Murdocca so would prefer Germano further up the park. If you watch the recent Sydney game closely, both of them shut ADP down together. It was really inspiring to watch how disciplined the two of them were and how brilliantly they communicated with each other. At all times during the game one of them tracked ADP and the other knew when it was his time to go. They alternated quite often depending on positioning and energy - Germano was only recently back at the time and the shift he put in was above and beyond what I expected he could do. If we could emulate this on the weekend we'd go a long way to shutting them down.

Demoted to janitor, where he deserves to be. He's the sweeper now?? Wtf??

Ange must surely be looking closely at him now. He would shit all over Luca$h the way he's playing at the moment.

Red and white shirt with sky blue shorts? Would that look good? no hahahaha. I;m not saying I want colour change, but red and sky blue can look good together if done right, but full sky blue shorts would look crap (would need to be a darker blue). You really need to break it down with another colour being between the red and sky blue. or done on subtle levels. Could someone please mock this up?? I took my son to the beach this morning and he wore his Heart shirt (he hasn't taken it off since Friday night) and sky blue shorts and it actually looked ok. I know sweet FA about fashion, but I would expect there are various shades of "sky blue" within a spectrum. I get the feeling that the darkest "acceptable" shade of sky blue with our shirt would be worth looking at. The socks to go with this?? Again defer to the more creative people in the forum but could someone have a crack at it?? We could keep our official colours as red and white, but wear shorts to indicate our benefactors in a similar vein to wearing a sponsors logo. Thank you Cannavo above. Would look better with red and white socks, but not a total trainwreck. Would also love to know what the darkest "sky blue" that would be acceptable. The "darker" the sky blue, the better it would look. And I disagree with you above Heartinator - look at blue shorts as a default form of advertising for MCFC - widely recognised as the pre-eminent pale blue team in the world. I'd rather the shorts as an advertising symbol than having "Manchester City FC" emblazoned on the shirt, for example, instead of a Westpac symbol. I've said before, keep the shirt - we are red and white - but if anyone thinks there will be no concessions at all then they're deluding themselves. As uncomfortable as it sounds, I suspect some form of compromise will ultimately take place and am awaiting the predictable surprised outrage that will follow. We all don't want it to happen, but we're not holding the cash bag unfortunately. And the fork in the road question in my mind, when you boil it down really, is whether you would stop following our team if the shorts changed? Plenty of passion about the shirt - fully understand that, but m'eh to the shorts in my mind.

Well a win is a win is a win. It wasn't pretty but I think we deserved the points. Twice as many total shots and shots on target and I think in deplorable conditions we were the only team who took the game on. Perth were deplorable in the first half with only one late attempt - they didn't show up. I suspect with a coach bleating all week how pissed off they were to be playing in Albury, this must rub off on the squad and it certainly looked like it. Cudos again to JVS for being measured and positive all week. Loved Special K's header for the first goal - showed great intent. Redders poor for their goal - he really seems out of form and his distribution again down today. I suppose with young players they can be up and down. Loved the ball from the Gooch to set up Willo and a persistent finish giving us a deserved win. Special mention to Mauk who showed a touch of class around the park and for a young player I can only remember one errant pass - certainly showing promising signs. I know Bella will kill me, but for the first time I thought the Hoff was ok. His decision making is improving and maturing and, along with Mass, has to be one of the fittest in the squad - he kept pushing all day. And finally well done to the travelling fans. I hope the Hume is open, the trains running and you get home safely. With all the indecision on start time, weather and conditions, I doff my cap to you for getting there and cheering the lads on. Finals are only a pipe dream, but compared to where we were six weeks ago, to dare to dream is certainly better than abject despair. COYBIR!!

Different games bring different experiences. Season 3 smashing Brisbane 4-1 was incredibly enjoyable to sit there and watch the opposition and title holders get obliterated. Despite their possession superiority, to watch them carved up with ruthless efficiency was just brilliant. Christmas derby 2011 was great and I'll never forget sitting on the fence Yarraside end willing Thommos two efforts in - the chip which seemed to take forever to dribble in and watching the other hit the post and hoping it would fall the right way. For sheer nerves holding on to a lead and triumphing 3-2 over Brisbane again in season 3. Willo's red and hanging on by a fingernail was draining but incredibly rewarding. The most tense win yet the stoicism to hang on fantastic. For pure joy last Friday. After the shit we'd all put up with, it was like a dam bursting. Resilient, inspiring, well coached and amazingly disciplined. And from what I've heard about JVS's half time speech to the players, I'm sure it will sit in their memories as well. Word is it was inspirational and incredibly calm and measured. Fwiw, the Perth game with Gol Gol's 89th minute winner was shit and boring football until that moment. A terrible game from both sides overall in terms of skill and chances.

What's to stop Man City buying up all the best junior talent in Australia, putting them on the Manchester payroll on good money, and then loaning them back to us for a pittance?? As mentioned previously, Aziz Behich is apparently having his wages paid for by his Turkish team and he doesn't count as a foreign player. Surely City could splash the cash and then be creative? Don't forget, City are in a powerful position. If the FFA make life too difficult, they can easily withdraw their support and leave - something the FFA would desperately try to avoid from a reputational and financial point of view. Another possibility is paying huge agent's fees or 3rd party fees for a player (which are held in trust by the agent until they leave or retire) and the player's wages capped whilst still active with the club. Barcelona seem to be good at this!! I'm watching with interest how this will pan out.

Red and white shirt with sky blue shorts? Would that look good? no hahahaha. I;m not saying I want colour change, but red and sky blue can look good together if done right, but full sky blue shorts would look crap (would need to be a darker blue). You really need to break it down with another colour being between the red and sky blue. or done on subtle levels. Could someone please mock this up?? I took my son to the beach this morning and he wore his Heart shirt (he hasn't taken it off since Friday night) and sky blue shorts and it actually looked ok. I know sweet FA about fashion, but I would expect there are various shades of "sky blue" within a spectrum. I get the feeling that the darkest "acceptable" shade of sky blue with our shirt would be worth looking at. The socks to go with this?? Again defer to the more creative people in the forum but could someone have a crack at it?? We could keep our official colours as red and white, but wear shorts to indicate our benefactors in a similar vein to wearing a sponsors logo.

The kid is 24 and in his first full season of professional football and it's widely acknowledged keepers don't peak until 30. He's made some mistakes but he hasn't been Robinson Crusoe in this team this year. I'm of the feeling we should persist to give him experience and build his confidence - to me the chance of finals is remote so let's try and improve his skills - there's little downside but a huge upside. Keepers, like all players have form slumps - just look at Joe Hart at MCFC. The problem we have is that our backup keeper doesn't sound great, and changing a keeper is not as simple as substituting other players. CBs and keepers need to develop understandings about positioning, team work and interceptions. This takes time especially under pressure situations. I'd also add he has done some good things this year which have gone uncommented upon. Earlier in the season he had a period of winning 7 straight one one ones against forwards and did again on the weekend. He's made some pretty good saves with an unsettled, porous defence in front of him and he has had a baptism of fire. He's probably the only real example of our youth policy being persisted with this season and this will always have rookie mistakes. The problem for keepers is that their mistakes are always in the spotlight.

Just home and a few thoughts. Have seen the replay of the red - harsh and commentators agreed. Even Farina couldn't believe it - the look on his face when it was given was of surprise. To be followed by shipping a cheap goal - not Redders best night - and Rambo denied a penalty bang on half time was galling. I was very polite yelling at the fourth official politely asking if he could educate his colleague on the pitch to the rules of the game in the sheds at half time. Honestly - I and everyone around me thought he'd killed the game dead. Just on the first half I enjoyed the structure of a 3-4-3 with a diamond in the middle while we had 11 men. Surprised to see Engelaar at the top of the diamond and Aziz looked like he was having more fun further up the pitch. Of course it all changed back to 4-4-1 with the red, but the ghost of Pellegrini was out there early with this formation, and I think it worked really well. The supply to Del Piero was restricted and the best midfield control I've seen in a while. I had a few nervy moments watching Hoff in the back 3 - he missed too many simple passes early - and I'm sure he won't be there next year just because of his skills and touch alone. Great credit needs to go to Germano and Mass in their discipline and communication. Time and time again they covered ADP and really restricted him to a very ordinary game. They crowded him constantly frustrating any attacking intent. the way they stuck to the task all night was impressive, especially Germano who didn't look match fit. His touch also was great and he showed quality in presenting and distributing too. Kewell was fantastic especially in the second half, but the obvious highlight is that this is the first time in ages the lads played for the shirt and showed real grunt and determination. Not the best victory I've seen, but probably the most enjoyable and satisfying. Compared to 5 weeks ago, the change in this team is startling. Possession football and far more flair. I also like the fact, and he's been much maligned, that Harry Kewell is in the ref's ear and batting for the team. With the few scuffles tonight like the wall at 85 mins, no one is taking a backward step and Kewell quick to support a teammate and argue the toss. We seem to have more steel and not allow ourselves to be pushed around. The irony of Garcia gifting Willo the ball for the winner was not lost on me and what a finish. No Mifsud was a relief but we're still short or real firepower up front. What we could do with a real striker. And finally to Yarraside - well done and loved the banner. The new owners will not be in any doubt about what we want re colors. COYBIR!!

I must admit I'm a bit bored with the name and colours debate - seems like most people open to a name change and keep the home shirt as a minimum. Seems reasonable but we'll just have to wait and see how this decision is made and with what consultation. Whatever happens, the nature of compromise is that someone (if not everyone!!) is left unhappy. Am waiting for the tirade of abuse when any decision is made. As they say in the Vatican, you can't keep all the papal happy all the time. What will really interst me going forward with this will be the relationship between the FFA and City?? We are in a potential position to gain a huge advantage over other clubs having joined forces with essentially a cash register. How will players given to us on loan be calculated in the cap?? City could loan us players with them paying the bulk of the wage and us paying minimum. Any talented Aussie kid could theoretically be put into a City youth squad on English money, then "lent" back to us on a pittance. The potential for loopholes is enormous, and the FFA will always be trying to balance keeping City happy for the future development of the league, whilst maintaining the faith of all other clubs. Add in this 10 game stints (??outside the cap), top notch expensive marquees and overseas training camps and state of the art off field support, the egalitarian balance and philosophy of the league will be sorely tested. Great for us (and tbh I'm sick of being a poor cousin!), but will be a potential nightmare for the administrators. We live in interesting times.

Geek time from me to add to this Bela (and have read Dylan above too). I actually got to meet by total chance one of the chief architects of AAMI park through my brother in law and had a long conversation with him about the ground. As queried above the inevitable budget cuts in construction led to reduced capacity and scrimping on aesthetics such as having the lights rise and glide over the outside domes to give a decorative effect. But I digress. The chap who designed it said the main problem with Etihad is that there is very little airflow over the playing surface meaning the grass almost rots or moulds. Coupled with poor sunlight the combination is shocking for any chance of normal grass growth with poor evaporation. Whilst the domes at AAMI park may look ok, they are specifically designed to catch any prevailing wind and corral it into a wind current about a metre high flowing over the playing surface. This means healthy air is flowing over the surface regularly but it doesn't feel overly gusty in the rest of the stadium. The time and engineering calculations that went into this were apparently significant but we luckily see the benefits every other week. I was impressed they went to the effort to study what went wrong at Erihad and came up with a pretty clever solution. I love AAMI park and passed on how impressed I was with the ground. The surprise to me was that, having put so much time and research into designing the ground, he said he'd never been to a match there of any description. The gap between the initial design and realization was too great to witness!!

As a long time Gooner there is not a hope in hell I'm changing teams or even going anywhere near close supporting Man City. I'll gladly watch Heart cash their cheques, use their resources to improve our facilities and send us the best youth and coaches. I'll be barracking for Heart with all my might if we play them in a friendly and hoping like hell Aguero rounds the keeper and then hits the post in the 93rd minute of the last round of the EPL this year to gift the Gunners the championship at the last minute. Does this make me sound ungrateful ??

Away from TV so can't watch. Can someone tell me out of curiosity, with Mifsud off for Germano, what shape are we playing?? Is Germano up front or 4-4-2?

I know if we get flogged today this post will be derided, but I think the JVS argument for next year is a strong one. The only impediment is if he wants the job - money is no issue here. We all know he has a youth development focus and did that very well in his first two years with us. He has a possession based football style and he doesn't have the cattle in the front third to show an attacking City flair at the moment but this could be rectified. His results in his second year, given the financial and resources constraints he had, were pretty good and he certainly has a decent media presence. After the recent Perth loss he was all about "we need to fix things" intimating he and the players had to improve. No "bad luck" or players not following instructions. Players will play for a coach like that. I think tactically he is pretty good, prepared to change things and prepared to chase games. The one other thing he has that others don't is institutional memory. He was there when it all began and understands our (brief admittedly!) history and the philosophy on which this club was founded and what we crave. This could all be lost if MC come in with a big broom. JVS with a truckload of resources behind him would be astute. I'm all for due diligence and casting the net widely, but they'd have to be obviously better than what we've got now.

Was at the BDO yesterday and not sure Liam Gallagher is the is the no. 1 ticket holder we want. Half the crowd couldn't understand him (not because of his accent, but because it was a rant), and half the crowd thought he was a twat. I'm a HUGE Oasis and Beady Eye fan, and I thought it was great having our club talked up in front of 30,000 folks, but all the work was undone when he cracked the shits and pulled the band offstage early before their set was finished. Perhaps the person who threw a trainer at him should have thrown a football boot instead - he would have handled that better. And I'm thinking to myself what faces will be pulled by City fans at home in Manchester watching BT sports if Heart put in a typical away performance today? I hope it's not a rapid induction into the type of stuff we've endured for two years and how much work needs to be done. If we win today with an inspired performance, this would have been the perfect week for Heart. Still pinching myself.

I've thought a lot about this today and where it will take us all. Heated debate over dinner and discussion of pros and cons. But at the end of the day, after nearly two years of abject despair with a shit coach and a worse game plan, I've decided I'm buying a ticket and jumping on this ride. As the roller coaster (and I'm sure it will be!!) chugs up the first hill, I'm sitting up front and planning to hit the first corner with my hands in the air screaming my guts out. We are entering uncertain times with change at our doorstep and confronting us to our core. But compared to the inert torpor we've all been in, despair, frustration and anger, I'm up for uncertain times. Fuck, it might even end up playing out well, but I'd rather something new and bold and end up flat on my arse, than continue as we are. Jump on board folks. There are no guarantees in life, but this will be interesting - something we can't say about the last two years!!

This is stunning news - simply stunning. Can't get the smile off my face. Looking forward to a pre-season match against City in June or July filling the MCG. An immediate impact would be to loan us one of their many talented kids right now who can bang in goals - would just fuel the excitement and give us something tangible to show their intent. Not too much to ask......?????

According to David Davutovic it is a month away. It was going to be the day after the Newcastle match. Over the weekend it was "imminent." Now it's a month away. Quite frankly I think we're being fed a line of bullshit...that the club is happy with because it takes the focus off the football. There would be no way known that journos would drop a name like Bart Campbell and he not deny it if not true. It's happening. Hopefully soon. My sources from within the club would back you Melburnian. Don't know when, but it's happening.

To both of the above, time for the Viagra eye drops ............. so you can have a long hard look at yourselves!!

How could you tell that from any replay? It was deflected as soon as it left his boot. All you could tell was it was going to the opposite corner to which it ended up in, and that Birghitti had started to more that way. Ramsays shooting has been shite most of the season, but against Perth he sent in a pretty powerful one on target and this one didn't look like a complete shank off the boot. By playing the same side pretty much as JA JVS has shown that it is his intention to rebuild their confidence. Ramsay is one of the players he's shown the most faith in as one of the most poorly performed, and now that he has finally put in a game worth selecting him for he should absolutely retain his spot. I would go into this weeks match with the exact same lineup, both on the pitch and bench. Nobody deserves to be dropped, and as much as we need to give youth a go and try players out, we need to build up consistency and try and get some results back on the board first. Agree on the confidence. Having spoken to a member of the coaching staff, confidence definitely needs to be rebuilt. Amazing to say this about a collective of professional athletes, but just indicates how low we have become. And if Willo doesn't come up, then Garruccio needs to start in front of Midsud with HK (or Garrucio - has he ever played there??) central. I agree partly with the Ramsay sentiments - has been incredibly lazy working back (and I take the attitude if you're down and not playing well going forward, you MUST help going back - non-negotiable!), and one game of tracking back doesn't make a summer. I think he has more to prove for me in terms of effort and commitment. He has been woeful and incredibly lazy at times and I think he should still be on notice. He was well known for this at Adelaide. You saw the youthful enthusiasm of the Gooch and there would be kids bursting for the opportunity. Will watch with interest.

Willo's injury is his ankle and apparently not too serious. His knee is ok. Bizarre source. I was sitting in a cafe at Aireys Inlet yesterday when the conversation at the next table was about Heart's great win. Turned out it was a close friend of Willo's who had spoken to him after the game. We had a good chat about the game and our relief at the win. Just strange to hear someone speaking out loud about our team in a positive light - has been so long. May there be more of it!!