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Not necessarily so. Injury-replacements are outside the salary cap. It is my understanding that whilst injury-replacement players are outside the cap, they must effectively be 'like for like'. Meaning that a club can't bring in an extra Visa player if an Australian player is injured. Also, wages must be comparable (if not the same), meaning that an international marquee couldn't come in as an injury replacement player for Germano. Germano's wages are not likely to be high, given that he was on minimum wages in his previous contract. So Liam Miller is probably on low wages as the injury replacement player signed through till the end of December. On not signing a LB, I would say it is very presumptuous to assume that the club doesn't think it has a LB problem (if only because Ramsay was dropped after 3 games, and 2 players, Germano and Garuccio, were then played at LB). Also it is being presumptuous to believe that the club thinks everything is rosy with the defence. Moreover, as the club said when Koren was injured, the problem with bringing in an injury replacement from overseas for 5 weeks is they'll need a few weeks to adjust and settle in the A-League, meaning by the time they come good they only put in 2 or so good performances (and then there's the question of what sort of players are free agents in the middle of the season, and are pre-pared to travel to Australia to play for low wages for only 5 or so weeks). The club said Miller was an 'opportunistic' signing. We signed a handy midfielder like him, who's proven in the A-League, because he suddenly became available, was fit and our team was missing 5 midfielders. If a handy LB was made available, and had a situation comparable to Miller, I reckon the club would have brought him in. But there are no decent A-League proven LBs available right now. So given the above, the signing of Miller makes a lot of sense. He's a very tidy ball playing midfielder, who can make the team competitive for places again (and probably push Retre and Murdocca out of the team), and I'm tipping a midfield of him, Mooy and Paartalu to impress. My original post stemmed from an article in The Age that claimed that Jason Davidson wanted a loan deal so that he could get first team game time and be selectable for the Asian Cup. So here we have an Australian national who is a LB wanting a loan. Interestingly Germano is listed as mid-fielder yet is expected to play defense. Another interesting observation is that the club has only listed four defenders: Kirsnorbo, Wieleart, Hofman and Chapman (so much for depth in defense). So the issue of like for like could be a real stumbling block as well as sorting out the salary. As far as the length of a loan deal it could just as easily be for the remainder of the season, the salary issue could also be sorted out. BTW I did start my post with the word presume.

I can also presume from this signing that the club does not believe that it has a defensive problem nor a LB problem. Furthermore, it has enough depth to cover the loss, due to injury or suspension, of any of the starting defensive players. Finally, that all problems stem from the middle of the park and if we get enough players there the team can control and win games.

Damn. Wanted Davidson as an injury replacement.

Well if he can't get game time and Behich is, then ,barring injury, I can't see Davidson starting. Can Davidson get a loan spell to the second division in the UK? The article is not clear. Maybe the third but then he is no better off than in the A-League. So if he wants to play in the cup in January, and CFG are making the offer then its up to him because sitting on the pine is also a backward step.

I note that I originally raised the issue of how many players would be selected in the current top four teams: AU, PG, MV, SFC. And I concluded that only Duff would make it into those teams. Mooy would probably make into two. Some people have taken to mean that City's players would make into any A-League team. Given the current state of Newcastle I dare say that they would take quite a few, but that is not the point. The point is whether the quality of the City's list would mean that they would be top four material, and I think not. I think that there is validity in the criticism that the team fades both physically and mentally. That has been a problem since the inception of Heart. Why do the players lack stamina to last the 90+ minutes I do not know, more importantly I expect that to be fixed over a pre-season. Mentally switching off is a more nuanced issue and you would hope that is within the realm of the coach to fix but not always. Some successful coaches fix this problem by releasing the player - something which is difficult to do in this league.

Michael Lynch is reporting in The Age that Jason Davison is looking for a loan spell to get some game time. Given the quality of our current left back options, can MelbCity arrange a season long loan for Davidson - after all he is better than our current options. Surely Germano can be put on the long term injury list and have Davidson replace him.

Does the club even have a mascot anymore?

Yes, he is starting to fulfil his talent. Precision cross, good runs and kept Honda ineffective most of the time.

Nicholls was in the thick of things but did he actually do anything constructive? Mooy had little game time and didn't screw anything up, but again did not do much either.

A truer statement has never been written.

There are three A-League players that have continually baffled me with the praise they get: Ibini, Mustafa Amini and Mitch Nicholls. Every time I have gone to see a game specifically with the intent of watching them I have come away disappointed. I don't see what others appear to see. So far Ibini has been picked up by a Chinese club and then released; Mitch Nicholls went over to Japan with Arnie but is now back here on loan; and Amini is somewhere in Germany. Ibini will be a slightly better than average A-league player. A Kristian Sarkies that somehow made it.

What ever it is, I don't want to see him do a Germano - 20 minutes on the pitch and season over.

If true it reminds me that when Alistair Clarkson took over the second last placed Hawks, they had the highest salary bill in the league.

Had it just been this season I may possibly agree with you- but its not. Every squad he has managed has shown the same characteristics and has pretty much the same win/loss ratio- so what the common denominator here? He is. His squad this season consists of good players who are far better than anyone elses in the league and the rest are of A-League standard. Yes, we have a gaps in particular positions, but whose fault is that? His- its his squad. Its not about instant gratification its about finding someone who can take us to eventually become the best team in Asia. He has had ample opportunity to show what he is made of and unless something drastic changes very soon I cant see it being him. I would love to be wrong here. I would love to see him become successful but nothing seems to be changing. I dont know what it is you see in him Murf. Maybe you made a bet with some dodgy gangsters and if he doesnt win silverware they will break your thumbs or perhaps you are just ridiculously stubborn and made your decision to stick by him quite some time ago so now you are just digging in your heels and finding any amount of excuses you can to deflect his responsibilities (and if that is the case i really respect it because i am just as stubborn on my opinions), but if you think he is anywhere near good enough to coach an A-League team to become the best team in Asia, I would love to hear your thoughts as to why. I can't agree with your comment that "his squad has players that are far better than anyone elses". The only player from this squad that could walk into any of the top four sides squad is Duff. Mooy would also get a run at one or two of the other clubs.The rest would at best be bench players in any of the top four sides. The gaps are partially his fault but some are inherited. None the less I agree that with the pre-season he had time to help plug in the defensive gaps. The one thing that has me perplexed is the statement "its about finding someone who can take us to eventually become the best team in Asia". The word 'eventually' can be an awful long time, maybe even JVS time. Perhaps you can better quantify how long a coach has before you give him the flick.

teach people teach. I am still learning about the game and so those who come on board need to be taught. And I am sure that i we trowl through the forums there would be some howlers ready to bite our arses.

Hi multi-million dollar team lost to Popovic's $3M team.

Let me respectfully disagree a little bit with you. The back 5 are a problem from last season, and yes we were stuck contractually with Wieleart and Ramsay but we were not stuck with Hoffman nor Kirsnorbo. Both were given new contracts at the end of last season - in Hoffmans case the season had not even finished but was given a two year contract extension. This call was made by the current regime. In this forum many, including Murfy1, have made the comment that the team lacks balance with too many mid-fielders, so I ask the question why weren't two of the out contract defenders not replaced by a better visa defender? Next is the issue of Redmayne and if memory serves me right, it was Murfy1 that pointed out that at the time of the signing Redders was considered a very bright prospect. There may be many reasons as to why he has not developed to the extent that he was expected to. One of those must surely be why is it that, if he did have talent, the club has been unable to develop him further. Which brings me to the next point in that even in our early seasons the club was able to develop Good, Behich, Babalj and Hamill, yet since JVS (mark 1) departure, the club has developed no youth talent at all. This could be because we are not spotting quality youth talent or because we have become crap at developing youth or a mix of the two. I will always wonder if the aforementioned Walker, Mitchinson, and Vrankovic would have fared better at other clubs. In any case the club must surely look at the youth talent spotters and youth coach but right now if NextGen were approached by City about joining their youth training squad I would have mixed feelings. As far as Germano is concerned in his first and a bit season he was fine and definitely not a dead weight. However his injury issues (well discussed elsewhere) have turned him into one. I seriously wonder whether our medical/recovery team has been poor or whether his body has hit the limit. In any case the club is stuck with him and Kalmar through contractual obligations. Hopefully Kalmar would have received the message that the club would rather have a discarded player from the roar rather than him playing; and therefore be receptive to moving on in January. I certainly agree with you questioning with a new manager will work wonders with the current playing list and have the team racing up the ladder. And people often forget that the WSW did not score their first goal until well into the season. They simply were not losing. And right now MelbCity has lost one game.

My fear going into the match was that CCM would park the bus and MelbCity would not have the creativity to unlock it. To my astonishment they did unlock it several times but only converted twice. Also I did not realise the sheer size of the CCM players. Those guys were big and they monstered the MelbCity players - Melling/Wieleart/Kirsnorbo/Paartalau being the only one built well enough to withstand the physical onslaught.

I think we have too many players that no-one would have. mariners jets and wanderers would all take a chunk of our players and make them half decent Popovic would. Moss and Stubbins, well the jury is out. Moss still has what Arnie built, Stubbins' team is not faring better than City.

For me the biggest screw up since the end of last season was the depletion of the defence. Last season out of the four regular starting line up defence player only Behich is gone because his loan spell finished. They released Walker and Mitchinson but kept Archibald. Germano has been a bit player at the back and in the mid-field and continues to be so. And that is it. They then try to shoe-horn Ramsay or Garrucio into LB with underwhelming results. Hoffman is ordinary on the RB. But who to replace them with? There is no competition for the defensive spots. It is possible that a new coach can come in and quickly assess the strength and weaknesses of our defensive back line and change the game plan to better suit the players at hand for the remainder of the season. But I would be astonished to find that such a person existed.

Well Lowe at Perth Glory is not far behind in the celebration stakes either. I have also seen Mulvey animated. Me thinks that JA was stretching thngs a bit.

I thought that when CFG bought the club the old board retired and a new board put in place. Wikipedia seems to indicate that none of the Melbourne Heart Board members remain in place. And as disappointed as I am at the current lack of success, I think its a bit early to call for the board to be replaced.

Yeah. Neither Retre nor Garrucio have shown enough on the pitch to warrant optimism.

In some other thread people were complaining that "newbies" were getting upset about the language being used, and correctly made the call that people with kids should move to the North Terrace. We did this last year (although I do miss the banter). As far as I can see most of the people in the NT are with younger kids. This needs to be taken into consideration.

Can't see too many goalkeepers saving that first goal - the ones that do would not be playing in the HAL. The second goal should have been better defended by his team mates.