El Cunado

"Jacob Melling (who may want to re-think his neck beard)" Um excuse me... it's glorious. Article lost all credibility after that notsrs I just think if he's going to rock the beard he's got to go all in. He's clearly got mane-potential, but his current execution just doesn't live up to it.

That was a horror that one. The week after a derby win and it was their third choice keeper from memory as well. Feeling okay for this match. Millar will definitely help, as without Koren, Mooy or Mauk, probably too much responsibility would have been on the shoulders of Retre/ Melling. Central Coast having one of the slowest defences in the league will be useful given the pace in ours and thats pretty much the reason I'm confident for the three points.

Great signing. Mate of mine in Ireland grew up with him funnily enough. Will prove very useful while we wait for Koren, not to mention that Mooy may be pretty hard to nail down in the lead up to the Asian Cup if he puts in a good account of himself against Japan next week. Ideally Mauk would step straight in, but he seems to be away on international duty every other week now.

Cheers guys, hopefully next weeks one won't be so depressing.

Its done in most codes and would certainly be happening in the A-League. Happens with a most of the major signings in the AFL such as Franklin, Boyd etc.

I guess we could always try and get him in as a guest player for the second half of this year. I know he is with the Red Bulls this year which means the relationship wouldn't be all that good, but theoretically we could bring him in on a guest stint for the second half of the season (with Kennedy as the aussie marquee) and then buy him outright for next season as the Aussie marquee with Kennedy going under the cap when Duff leaves. Alternatively, as mentioned before it could just be a back-end loaded contract with Kennedy, get him under the cap this season on a low wage and then bump it up next year when Duff finishes up. Would allow Timmy to come in as the Aussie marquee. That being said, I highly doubt we will get Tim. Would be fantastic if it could happen though.

Over the moon with Josh apparently signing. Good player and it would be useful to have someone who can finish off some crosses. It seems that so often we have the ball out wide only for our players to be hesitant to put the ball in given the height of Willo/ Villa. Doubt we'll just ping the balls in all day (ala Aloisi's game plan to make the most of Mifsud), but just use him to add an extra dimension to our play (ala Janko at Sydney). As for Cahill, I'll believe it when I see it, but were it to happen it would pretty massive. Would be very surprised if he didn't end up at a Sydney team though.

Cheers guys, had a blast doing it. Most productive form of uni procrastination yet.

If he leaves after round five and then comes back in time for the packed match schedule around Christmas then I don't really see a problem with it. If anything, its allows us to get used to how we'll play when he does leave for good and possibly get Josh in a few weeks earlier then expected. Furthermore it allows him to be used in two of the biggest matches of the season (vs. WSW and vs. the Vi4it0rs) whereas he wouldn't have been able to play in them otherwise. . That being said, its typical to see the local football websites (such as The World Game) going with doom and gloom articles that don't even reference the quote implying that he was likely to come back. Not that surprising really as most of the local sites love to report sensationalized rubbish as a form of clickbait (or merely articles about Wanderers fans jumping up and down).

Ha! Agreed! Best hair in the league by a stretch.

Give him a few games and he'll be able to do the full 90. Match fitness would take a few weeks to get back given the length of the off-season and while he played a few pre-season games, its never really the same as playing against top level opposition.

Oh and Ray Gatt went on to say that he got this from the same source that said Villa would arrive a week before the season starts, which of course turned out to be true. Soccer Stoppage Time; the radio show that searches for exclusives by making things up.

That was legitimately one of the most entertaining games I've watched from any league. Surely Gameiro is a shoe-in for a Socceroos call-up. Fantastic to see the Habibi's lose and Popovic have a sook in the post-match interview. Got me bloody pumped for the real derby next week too.

Parov Steller-esque.

A shame that in todays club email interview he was pretty certain in his refusal to hang around longer then a year so his kids could start school back in Ireland. Seems like a born winner, the kind that we haven't really had at the club before. He'll definitely add even more motivation for the players to work their arses off for the league this year.