fensaddler

https://melbournecityfc.com.au/news/20240424-necovski-signs/ 16 years old and 195cm tall...

Maclaren's recent comments suggest an expectation that Caputo will be leading the line much more regularly next year. Suspect we'll see more of Mazzeo too. Plus we've had a gun young striker sidelined all season that I'm keen to see. Be interesting to see how this all pans out in the next couple of months. We'll need to thread the needle in keeping some experience and continuity, but also doing better than we sometimes have in promoting youth.

And yet they still have the likely golden boot winner. How bad have the rest been?

I got the sense that we had a clear succession plan in keeping Nieuwenhuizen and signing Beach. Young may do another season to bridge until they are ready or maybe they are ready and we're just waiting for Nieuwenhuizen's fitness.

Never mind the quality, feel the width. In our own hands. Thought it was gone. Let's pack the place out next week and make some noise. Bonus is a chance to thrash the green filth.

Now he's got one...

I remember getting something about it. Thought about putting up for it but decided not to.

Yes, I quite liked Ugarkovic playing full back. He's solid there and it frees up space in midfield for more creative options.

Interesting. Certainly we're inconsistent but neither Brisbane nor WSW are weak sides, Brisbane latterly but not so much at the time we beat them. And we beat Wellington only a few weeks ago. We're just plain inconsistent. Capable of being good one week and bloody useless by comparison only days later.

Sydney have just done us a huge favour... Fat lady was definitely about to start warbling... Talk about late winners.

Always there when I can. And I'm aiming to be at this one and the WU match in two weeks. Then start planning for next season.

On this one, I suspect we have to accept the same medical or contractual confidentiality as we'd want for ourselves. On this one I'm happy to accept that it's none of my business. Though On a personal level I'd wish him a swift recovery from whatever ails him.

Me too. He'll leave as one of our best. Does flag a significant changing of the guard though. May be the good sort of change. Can only hope.

Some thoughtful and well argued stuff here. Thank you. I suppose the problems we've had (apart from a behind the scenes cultural one which we can only guess at) have been that we built a team with some young players who were very good, and then left all at once, and that we had an issue with good overseas players leaving before their contracts were up (and Van der Venne, Lam and Sakhi feels more than a coincidence, even if it could have been one, overseas players do fail to settle). Difficult reliably to sign younger players who are good enough, but not good enough to leave for better options overseas. But this season we've definitely struggled with signing several sub par players, and with an ageing squad that definitely all looks a year too old all at once. Could we have foreseen the latter? Maybe not. But we've often been too slow to give experience to younger players who might cover for them.

This feels like a longer run thing than one season. We've made mistakes over a number of seasons that have left us with an ageing squad vulnerable to injuries. That's been compounded by the losses of good younger players last season. But we surely plan this with a forward view over several seasons, so the fact that we haven't done so well enough is a failure that has been building for several seasons.

Interesting article. https://www.frontpagefootball.net/post/a-comprehensive-preview-of-melbourne-city-s-off-season?fbclid=IwAR0IwmSRAogUNSpDD2ROG-tT8u9tqrlMWHdgsyJ84uvLu-2XEsGRvlkoKNo

That's our season officially over.

Not a penalty in a million years. Fernandez barged over. Just a joke.

Absolutely. A week ago this looked impossible. A brilliant and unexpected outcome.

I notice the balloon incident was discussed in the Talking City game summary as one of their three talking points. I hope this one isn't going away without an almighty fuss.

Balloons was towards the front of Bay 16. In front of me. Seemed to sum up everything that is wrong with the grim, joyless A League at the moment.

Officials have now lost control of this.

We've got another arse for a referee today.

Have officially reported to the club via membership@. Suggest anyone else who saw it does the same.

Saw this. Security were utter arseholes. And the rest of them laughing while it happened. Those kids might not come again. It's these fuckwits who are killing the game. Adult that was with the kids was I think filming it all on his phone. Hopefully results in a complaint and a few sackings.