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So that means that there are 9 spots left including 3 visa players. Although I am not sure about Wieleart who I thought his contract was over at the end of this season.

Definitely need someone up forward with clever mongrel in them. That is brutish enough for defenders to be weary but not stupid that they get red-carded. BTW I think that Germano does a great job of getting under people's skin without being red-carded.

One way to address the culture issue (of which I am not convinced but do see the point) is to replace the players. Since the win over the Victory there have been chances created to score goals but these were not taken. So a good starting point is to replace the players at the front and try players that do score. So far with the re-signing of the players the question that leaps at me is how will JVS improve the off season training to ensure that the players that are meant to score do so. I have noted in other blogs that players seem to have one kicking foot and if its not at the right place they do not kick the ball and that if the other side gets physical Heart players shrivel and go to ground to easily.

I agree, Kewell is Finished and although Engelaar is good only way to keep him is take away the marquee status. Because we need a much better Marquee than him. Melbourne Heart has to invest in the best Marquee in the league meaning better than Broich. I am not ready to write Kewel's obituary just yet but he has been too injury prone. And since the Melb Vic win has not performed to that standard. My preference would be not to re-sign either of these players but if we had to keep one I would keep Kewell. I would like to think that the club can get a better marquee but some big name players fit into the A-League and others don't. As an analogy Messi who has won multiple MVP awards never seems to do as well when he plays for Argentina. No question on his ability or the teams but they just don't seem to gel. And although the 5 visa players have been OK they have not been exceptional and the club needs more from the visa players. AFAIK Germano is the only one with another season left of his contract. I don't know the regulations regarding sports players obtaining PR but I am not sure whether he would qualify.

If, as the rumour mill has it, Walker will not be offered another contract then perhaps as compensation for having been subjected to Aloisi's coaching, Walker should be given game time to make a case for another club to pick him up.

It is not necessarily that every player needs to be fast like Dugandzic, Williams or Ramsay. Instead Wieleart and Kirsnobo lack pace when the ball gets through. If Hoffman is the fastest player at Heart then it certainly doesn't show on match day and does not cover for his other weaknesses (I'm all for releasing Hoffman). As far as OE is concerned, we are all wondering why he has not produced what he showed upon his return to the pitch - could be injury or whatever. But if he had a bit more pace then that would be even better.

Just remembered that Dugandzic has been playing with a strapped knee for the last few weeks. If there are doubts on his fitness then he should be rested and allowed to recuperate. If the knee requires medical intervention then send him off to surgery and let his recovery begin.

After that goal I was screaming for OE to just shoot from anywhere in the park!

Hoffman needs a rest. Bring in Walker, even if he is out of the picture for next season at least it may showcase him to another club.

I don't particularly care how big a profile the marquee has but the requirement has to be that he be better than what is currently on offer in the A-League. As for profile the Heart has Kewell at the moment. As much as I like what OE has shown I feel that that the marquee needs more pace. FWIW I prefer the marquee to be a midfielder rather than a striker.

AFAIK the current list of players contracted for next season are: Redmayne, Murdocca, Ramsay, and Williams. This gives JVS plenty of scope to bring in a spine of better quality players. I am hoping that he is doing his homework diligently.

So frustrating. I think most comments have been spot on. Defence was poor and slow, the final third couldn't capitalise on the opportunities created. During match I could not understand why Heart players went to ground so easily, they slipped and tumbled. I mentioned before that the team can't handle a physical game. For a while there I felt that many players could make a case for being kept but the last two weeks show that in reality they are not what the club needs. Engelaar's goal was a classic but ultimately he is now too slow - if we are to have a midfield marquee player then they need to be younger. As much as I like Williams, he needs to nail the opportunities, ditto Mauk - the team needs a beast of a striker who can shoot truly with either feet. Wieleart and Kisnorbo have been dutiful stalwarts at the back but lack pace. And with Kisnorbo drifting forward he does not have the pace to run back. Germano in defence has been good but not as effective as he was four to six weeks ago. And frankly JVS has not been able to make changes during the game that have been effective. As for Hoffman, that is two weeks in a row that he has played below par - way below par. Take a punt next week and bring in Walker.

Finding it difficult to believe that Heart can make the finals given the Jets win last night. As I write we are playing for 12 points and are 8 points behind them, and 9 points behind CCM. For Heart to make the finals both the Jets and CCM would have to lose the majority of their forthcoming matches. The Jets play PG in Perth, then Victory and Adelaide at home. the clubs fate is in CCM's and Jets' hands. Of course Heart will have to win over CCM, Roar, AU, and WSW.

I though Og did ok specially in the air where AU had no one to match him. The real problem was SFCs midfield and forwards that allowed their defence to come under continuous pressure.

Professional sports people subject themselves too perhaps the greatest scrutiny of all jobs. There are thousands watching their every move from every angle possible. And today their every mistake or success is recorded for posterity (I believe that you can also watch bloopers of Cristiano Ronaldo). So yes it is easy to slag a player. And as I have said, if the players were flawless then they would be playing in Europe. So I am happy to watch the local product knowing full well that they can make mistakes. But the glorious bits are worth waiting for. As I've said elsewhere I like Ramsay and know that he can improve.

Can't see the club moving Ramsay on unless another club comes a knocking for his services, and Ramsay is willing to go. The matter of paying his contract out would impact on the salary cap. Now, personally, I think that he is a much improved player under JVS but if the general opinion is that he is not good enough then other clubs may have the same opinion and therefore won't come knocking. Can he play to his potential? I certainly hope so! A good pre-season under JVS should help. My biggest fear is that he is too much of a confidence player, that is when he is feeling confident he plays well but as soon as his confidence dips he flounders and takes time to get back. I am not sure about poor positioning (and yes I am aware that there are plenty of those but there are also plenty of good positioning), ditto for options. Definitely agree with the poor shooting. One thing I have noticed with the A-League as compared to the European leagues is that far too many players can't kick with either foot, effectively one legged players. So I feel that Ramsay's problem is that unless the ball is in the right position for his good leg to kick, he'll botch the kick. Well I guess the thing that got me about poor positioning was all those offsides when we were desperately chasing the game against Wellington. Agree though he's not always in the wrong spot. With his options though I've seen him lay the ball off when really he needed shoot, but in another game shoot from a ridiculous angle, instead of cutting it back. Interesting point you make about one footed players. I can't "# believe" the numbers of players we have who seem to have only 1 foot! "Oh the ball's on my wrong foot, I'll move it over then beat the 4 defenders who turned up", rather than have a shot on the other foot! What was their junior coaches doing? Ramsay was trying to beat the line for many of those offside against WP. And IMHO (and my brothers) two of those calls by the ref were wrong, of course we were at the ground so perhaps on replay the ref may have been right but I felt that at least two of those he was onside. Players that try to break the line always run the risk of being called offside. As for players with one foot, I am not sure whether its an innate thing or something that can be trained to avoid but I noticed the same thing with AFL players (Lucas for Essendon was a classic). What ever the case the pre-season should include a hefty dose of kicking with the wrong foot.

Wow! Did not realise that the A-League is in the top 10!

Can't see the club moving Ramsay on unless another club comes a knocking for his services, and Ramsay is willing to go. The matter of paying his contract out would impact on the salary cap. Now, personally, I think that he is a much improved player under JVS but if the general opinion is that he is not good enough then other clubs may have the same opinion and therefore won't come knocking. Can he play to his potential? I certainly hope so! A good pre-season under JVS should help. My biggest fear is that he is too much of a confidence player, that is when he is feeling confident he plays well but as soon as his confidence dips he flounders and takes time to get back. I am not sure about poor positioning (and yes I am aware that there are plenty of those but there are also plenty of good positioning), ditto for options. Definitely agree with the poor shooting. One thing I have noticed with the A-League as compared to the European leagues is that far too many players can't kick with either foot, effectively one legged players. So I feel that Ramsay's problem is that unless the ball is in the right position for his good leg to kick, he'll botch the kick.

The VFL/AFL have tried midweek matches in the past but have never attracted a crowd which is why they were discontinued. I note that this season the AFL is again experimenting with it at Foxtel's urging. So I suspect that the sporting culture in this city is reserved for the weekend, hence the lack of attendance at the ACL games. The lack of knowledge about Asian clubs does not help either. It would be interesting to know the match attendances in some of the Asian countries both for the ACL and their regular season.

What about Langerak? He is getting splinters on his butt and may be amenable to an approach.

The problem with paying ever higher salaries (assuming that the players justify their salaries) is that it means higher fees for spectators. And multimedia rights will only go so far before the advertising that supports the rights becomes too expensive and then everyone goes bust. I seem to remember that about 15 years ago an enterprising British company paid astronomical fees for the rights to the Championship, League 1 and 2. The clubs were ecstatic and paid their players a corresponding sum of money. But the advertising was so horrendously expensive and the football so poor that advertisers stayed away and the public did not watch. End result was that the company went bust, clubs went bust and sanity was restored through a severe adjustment. As for the AFL, well the reason they introduced the caps (salary and player) was that clubs such as Carlton continually poached the better players that the smaller clubs had developed. This meant that far too many games were lopsided and the top clubs remained perched at the top. This was leading to a drop in crowds and a drop in TV audiences. Hence the AFL came into existence along with the caps. BTW the Europeans are moving in the same direction with the introduction of tighter financial scrutiny. Right now I don't have access to all the financial details but it is well known that most clubs are not making a profit. So I think that the salary cap is probably about right since it enables a player to sustain a family (although not in luxury) and is not sending the clubs into receivership. As for the PFA, my understanding was that they did not ask for a substantial increase in salary after the latest media rights but instead got a guaranteed salary from the FFA in case a club went bust (GCU did not pay their players) or were having financial issues (CCM last season). People who want to remove all caps need to explain how they will sustain a competition that can grow and maintain interest without going bust.

Is this the first official signing for the forthcoming season? I note that there were mentions that Hoffman and Velaphi had also been re-signed but I don't believe that there has been an official mention.

Well definitely a rarity.

I am of the strong opinion (if that hasn't been apparent already ) that we need to improve coaching. Another example was Ange Postecoglou when he became Brisbane Roar's coach. The club had just sacked Farina and was now under administration by the FFA. They had to release their three most promising young talents in Oar, Sarota and Zullo who all went to the Netherlands. So he had a relatively young squad and brought some unknown foreign players in Berisha and Broich. The following season they began the longest undefeated run in Australian sporting history. Ange is on the record as saying that youth have never let him down. Popovic took some journeymen and turned them into a formidable team. Topor-Stanley and Beauchamp as perhaps the best defensive pairing last season - no one saw that coming. Josep Gombau at Adelaide United and Ernie Merrick at Wellington phoenix. And dare I say it, I think that Brisbane have stepped up a notch under Mulvey. And of course JVS when he took over from JA. So I am not fussed about the reduction of visa players at this stage because I think that there is plenty to work with right now. The problem i that we don't have enough quality coaches and infrastructure to develop the talent that is already here.

One of the many reasons why I should burn in hell is that once I wrote a 30 page contractual document of pure waffle that said everything is rosy but committed to nothing. Listening to JVS reminded me of that document. At least I will have interesting company.