jw1739

I hope that your confidence is reflected in what happens on the player front over the next month or so. Of course I don't know the exact numbers, but at this stage prima facie it looks to me that we're up against it in terms of the salary cap and we don't have a squad that can challenge for silverware as we still need major reinforcements in defence.

Why do we need a "new" post-match celebration? I wasn't aware that we actually had one now. I, and a lot of other people on the wings and at the Northern End, have been waiting seven years for the team to acknowledge our support, especially after a win.

AFAIK the proposed cap for 2017/18 is $2.92m. http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/furious-aleague-club-slam-ffa-distribution-offer-for-201718/news-story/9304cea2448d6094f03e756c17be3e72 Cahill therefore around 13.7%. Too much. If we make him our second marquee, then we'll have a bit-player as a marquee. The situation has the potential to be a stuff-up....

From his Twitter looks like Tommy is back in Denmark now. https://twitter.com/TSorensen1

Inside-the-cap "spending money." Confirmed gone from inside the cap so far: Sorensen, Rose, Kuzmanovski, Gameiro and Retre. Coming inside the cap so far: Cahill (rumoured $400,000) and Galekovic. There can't be much space left under the cap. Buggered if I can see how we are going to be able to fit players in.

Can't Petrillo manage to send him back to Adelaide? But, seriously, you're right. We can't keep dumping players anyway, whether we think we've found some one better or whether we think the player isn't performing to the level we want. Especially Australian players, because we're running out of players that we can sign unless if we want to go into the season with a youth squad augmented with a handful of senior players. At the moment our midfield/forward stocks are Arzani, Kilkenny, Genreau, Brandan, Fornaroli, Kamau, Fizgerald, Cahill and Caceres. We can't dump Kamau. The task is to get him performing to expectation.

I don't recall reading the "12 months on the sidelines" (or words to that effect) from a statement by the club at all. It has been bandied around in the media, but I don't recall any definitive statement from the club.

Maybe, but we've gone through this argument plenty of times. There is a certain thing called a salary cap, and we have to replace Paulo with a better Australian player but on no higher wages for us to be ahead. I'd like to know who that better Australian player is. People seem to be confident that we have all our signings - Australian and visa - organised and it's just a matter of announcing them, but I'm not so sure now that training has recommenced.

Suspect that it will be outside the ground. Protection of the food outlets inside the ground.

I thought Genreau was an AM? And he's only just turned 18 anyway. And I rate Malik as just about the weakest link in our entire squad. Kilkenny is our only quality DM. The club has never disclosed just how serious the injury was or the nature of the surgery that he had. It may not have been a full rupture.

UOTYH: Ministers of the Commonwealth Government being criticised for voicing their opinions on sentences being given in our courts. At least these Ministers have been elected by the voters of their electorates as members of the Commonwealth Parliament. Judges haven't been elected by anyone - just appointed. If they don't like the heat then they should get out of the kitchen. It's becoming impossible for anyone in this country to voice an opinion on anything without being taken to task. Ridiculous.

I'd like to know more about how this bloke is going. Deleted file.

I can't go with any of them at this stage. I don't know how to quantify it, but IMO the first thing he is here for is to change the culture of the club. We had a shit culture last season, but we still won a trophy (and won it well). IMO the trophies and ACL will follow once we demonstrate that we have a culture of grit and determination to play every match out to the last second, not to cough up draws after leading or defeats after we've been on level terms, and to come from behind to win. I think we'll know 8-9 matches into the season whether Wazza has been able to make a difference in that respect. Unfortunately I don't think it will come easily, certainly not just because we sign good players because that hasn't worked before. Another reason I don't think it will come easily is because the same old assistant coaching team is there, for the moment anyway, and Wazza can't be everywhere at once.

What should be debated is why there seem to be so many children these days deemed to either be "on the autism spectrum" or supposedly having ADHD. It seems like an epidemic. Methinks much of it is over-diagnosis. I can't begin to think of the potential long-term effects of pumping drugs into these young kids at ages such as 6-8. Maybe what's needed is a bit more of the "Sit down, shut up, and face the blackboard."

Yes, the "standard" 14-match guest player rule still exists. That's not correct. We accommodated FFA, not the other way round. They had to create the "Cahill Rule" to get TC back to the A-League. We had already committed to Fornaroli and Colazo as our marquees, and we were the only club willing to fork out the (bulk of the) money Cahill wanted.

Correct. The "Cahill Rule" for a Full Season Guest Marquee was for Season 2016/17 only.

Will definitely be in.

Of course it does. So do a lot of teams that include four starting players who haven't been signed yet and may never be.

IMO we'll regret losing Retre. Arnold sees him as a useful signing for a title defence and for the ACL and we're prepared to let him go - concerns me a bit. I know it's early days (or is it?) but we seem to be pinning a lot of the Forum's hopes for next season on signings that haven't happened yet

All I know is that unless we get in at least three decent defenders we won't win anything. Once more, the defence - or lack of it - is looming as a critical weakness.

FFS. He's a Lancashire lad, born in Oldham. It'll take a lot more than some wussy journo to put him under the pump.

Apparently Vukovic is going to Genk in Belgium for around $1m transfer fee. And Sydney likely to sign Paulo Retre.

Apparently he's likely to join Sydney.

I think he meas Ian McNamara of "Australia All Over." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/macca-all-over/news-story/520e26c9e49b8ab9a92d6b1085215958 They've held the "Monster Trucks" thing for the past 3 years or so. It doesn't seem to affect the pitch at all. They cover the whole thing with plastic and sand etc. and then remove it all afterwards. I don't think we've started with a home match since Season 1 when we started the season with Heart vs. Central Coast. IIRC we haven't had too many seasons where we've finished with a home match either.

City Voice is not the only platform that is seemingly ignored by the club. On the club web-site the latest up-date from the Fan Representative Group is dated 25th November 2015. I think we know that the FRG does continue to be active on a regular basis, but there is no communication whatsoever from the club to other fans - be they paid-up members or not - as to what is discussed at its meetings. In these days of "instant" communication, there's nothing much worse than having out-of-date or inaccurate crap on your web-site. City is not alone in this, of course, but it doesn't give a good impression of any organization to ignore your on-line presence. The membership "Ts and Cs" (Terms and Conditions) continues to refer to 2016/17 instead of 2017/18, and the links to "Citizens Benefits" and "Member-Get-Member" take you to the membership page and not to those aspects of membership at all. Resounding "fail" to whoever is supposed to be keeping this stuff up-to-date.