Heart_fan

Who is Hughes (Ireland) in our visa list?

As for Manchester City basing themselves on the GC, it's exactly the same as European clubs doing training camps in Spain or the Middle East, or MLS clubs doing the same in Florida. This is all based around weather mainly. The fact is though that a Melbourne winter is not ideal, but compared to Manchester it can be almost tropical in comparison 😜. Let's hope they base themselves in Melbourne for the week of the games though and do some decent cross promotion with us.

They'll be playing on the training ground, as announced. There won't be any stands to watch the game, but it's still a viable football pitch. When was that announced? The only comments that I have read are they will be 'based' at bundoora, on the academy/youth pitches. That seemed to refer to training, not playing. As for JM, he doesn't seem to be getting much out of the youth players in the NPL. Most of them spear frustrated by the experience which is a pity, especially if he is meant to be helping to guide our development program. Maybe he's better suited to women's coaching. Who knows.

Sad that people have to go down the nationality path, instead of focusing on the talent. We already had the NSL days to highlight that very clearly. The guy shows potential and I hope we do sign him.

JVS just can't seem to inspire confidence in anyone, whether that be the players or the fans. City really should have started a fresh chapter for the next season, with JVS, JD and Scott Munn moved on and a new, more dynamic management structure brought in.

How will JA have any chance of gaining respect from his players? His record alone, which I am sure these BR players know at least someone that was at MH at the time he was 'coaching' us, would be enough to make them scratch their heads in amazement. JA's less than 2 full seasons stint with us was some of the most defensive minded, boring and frustrating football imaginable. Now that he gets this job, and visited Barcelona for a few days, somehow he thinks he can stick to the BR's preferred possession based style? Good luck.

Wasn't the Jeep deal done just before he signed with Victory? Seems to me if anyone was being untoward regarding that it would be Victory not us.. Apparently it was originally signed when he was at MV but was extended on the proviso he signed with us. Who knows. It's what I have read anyway. Just how we were involved in any of that is the complicating factor.

The NYL seems like a dead end for many players. Must be a frustrating experience.

200K would be fair value in my view. He has shown promise but a long way to go.

^^ I tend to agree. In other news the Herald Sun are reporting that the FFA will be investigating the Harry Kewell Jeep deal, which alledgedly forms part of the current legal issues playing out in court currently. If the club was to be found to have breached the rules under the previous licence holders, how would this affect things now? Seems complicated, but it would almost certainly see Munn and JD get the axe. It's hard to tell though exactly how that deal worked. I guess we will see who was involved when investigations take place.

If be happy to see him signed too. Seemed to show he had potential to step up at WSW.

We are linked to so many players, but finally the club appears to have really made a step up and made hard choices. Still some way to go, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.

Not going to happen. I'm sure there's a few other opportunities for him in Europe.

^^ Headed to MV by the latest talk. We will see.

Oh well, we can't control the behaviour of all of our sponsors

The whole series of events with Archibald are very odd. Good to see him get a chance over there but I must admit that I saw very little from him in his opportunities in the senior team in his time with us. His lack of pace seemed a major issue, but maybe it was just on those occasions he didn't lift his game to the required standard. No idea.

JVS does come across as a colder type character, but wasn't he seen as being too soft on people earlier in the season? There was that change of thinking that apparently occurred after the 5-1 loss to Wellington, where even Massimo came out and said he had seen JVS become harder and more like a manager. I guess he just can't find the right balance, as he seems like a person that just can't command a team to bring the best out of them as a collective unit.

With Manchester City headed to Australia in July, it has organised a friendly behind closed doors on the Gold Coast (15th July), 6 days before their first match in Melbourne. Adelaide were apparently chosen as they will be playing Liverpool around that time and will still be in training. What do we think CFG will do to ensure Melbourne City are also given some focus? Not using such events to promote us would be a very frustrating. I can see them training at Bundoora, but let's hope there's more in it than just that.

Unfortunately it seems players of any real calibre seem to dictate their own terms. How committed to something would you be if it's only something you will be doing for 10 weeks? It's rarely going to be very high.

It is normal, but we don't exactly have much capacity in this league to expect much more. Knowing ones limits would be important. It would be interestong to know what the gap is. If it is substantial, those negotiations will be fun

So damn true. Signs so many and then has no idea how to play them. It's scary to think that someone thought it was a top priority to re-enforce an area of the park that actually was a strength for us this year. Let's look at our wing backs and our forward options before even thinking of new midfielders.

I feel that Massino is someone we need in our club. He works hard and actually appears to care. He will likely be someone that we can rely on when needed, with experience and can provide some depth. As we won't be taking up too much cap space, it is a good to have him stay on.

^^ Watching Villa play in the MLS, I was surprised to see that he isn't one that really invests himself into that club either. Seems odd to make a big career decision to move down to MLS/HAL level and not be prepared for it. As for us, CFG didn't come here and spend over $10 million on the licence and $15 million on a training base just as some kind of fun investment. They want to make it work, but honestly they do need a new CEO here. Munn has had his time to grow the club but just hasn't seemed to be able to facilitate success on or off the field. Some new blood would at least tell the fans we are serious about improving, with an even bolder move to let JVS go something that should be considered even more intently. To think that they aren't trying to make us work is misguided, but they do have a big challenge ahead of them.

The most interesting bit of news today was that we were chasing Roly Bonevacia From Wellington quite hard, yet he chose to stay at the Pheonix for another 2 years. How would he have fitted in to our system though? With Mooy and Koren already in that part of the field, it seems an odd move, even though he is a very good player.

In a media market that has very limited reporting of our code, unfortunately they will still resort to talking up MV and leave us on the outer. The previous owners kept the media well informed and actually got a fairly balanced response from them in return. It had to do so though as it had no $$ to actually promote the club itself.