jw1739

Don't agree. Someone not actively involved with MHFC and wishing to find out more about the club is much more likely to go to the official web-site rather than look for a Twitter or Facebook account. Just as you would if you were wanting to find out more about, say, a company listed on the ASX and its products. A web-site is one of the important public 'faces' of any organization, and needs to be kept informative and up-to-date.

Methinks time for an announcement from MHFC. From FFA website: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/nichols-to-leave-roar/66988 Mitch Nichols has refused the offer of a new contract from Brisbane Roar, paving the way to join former boss Ange Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory. Nichols’s contract expired on April 30, and the Roar confirmed late Friday that the 24-year-old had decided to "seek new opportunities". Reports in the Brisbane media indicate Nichols will instead link up with Postecoglou in Melbourne, leaving Roar's midfield stocks depleted, with Massimo Murdocca having left for Melbourne Heart and Ben Halloran and Steven Lustica also expected to leave. Nichols played 125 matches for Brisbane Roar, scoring 24 goals and was a key part in the club’s back-to-back Hyundai A-League championships. Brisbane Roar Managing Director Sean Dobson said the club was disappointed with Nichols’ decision, but accepted his desire to challenge himself at a new club. “We’d like to thank Mitch for his contribution in his six seasons at the club and we wish him well in his future endeavours,” Dobson said. “We’ve been in constant communication with Mitch and his management during this season, however at this time Mitch indicated he feels he needs a new challenge. “From the club’s point of view, we’re comfortable knowing we did everything in our power to keep Mitch in Brisbane Roar colours.”

We'll be the last to know if these rumours have any substance whatsoever.

At least we didn't give a blast of publicity as per Lucas Neill and then fall flat on our faces. So we're learning, albeit slowly. But really, it's a throw-away and unnecessary line in a newspaper article. There might have been plenty of other opportunities for Vidosic, but the journo has chosen to mention just one. Move on. More important things to concern ourselves with.

Rumours, rumours. Sigh. Not even any confirmation of Murdocca yet.

What we need for our squad next season is players and coaches who are the first step in a long-term plan for the club. Our entire foundation coaching team is no longer with us, and at the present time the only confirmed signing for next season who was a foundation player is Nick Kalmar. I don't have facts to back me up, so I'm guessing, but that seems like an uncommonly high turnover in just three seasons of football. In reality, MHFC is starting again in 2013-14. So IMO what we need above all is to settle down and build the club again, getting a balanced squad with the right mixture of ages so that we have some form of succession planning. We need to sign players who fit the gaps in the squad and who fit the style of football we are going to play. What we don't need are knee-jerk signings just because players are available. Neither should we be signing players and then try to convert them into something they are not. Nor do we need to take unnecessary risks with players who have a history of injuries.

Interesting that Peter Zois no longer appears as a member of the coaching team, pretty much confirming that we are, or will be, looking for a new goalkeeping coach. Meaning that in just three seasons we have seen all our original coaching team leave the club - van 't Schip, Olsen, Milicic and Zois.

Just clarifying the length of JA's contract, taken from the club web-site today: 'In 2012 Melbourne Heart FC appointed one of Australia’s most successful football exports, John Aloisi, to the position of Head Coach on a three-year contract. Aloisi is the only Socceroo to have played in Europe’s three leading competitions – the English Premier League, Italian Serie A and Spanish Primera Liga. With 55 international caps, scoring 27 goals, including the famous penalty that sent the Socceroos to their first World Cup in 32 years, Aloisi brings substantial elite level experience to MHFC. Having played for the likes of Guus Hiddink, former FC Barcelona and England coach Terry Venables and ex-Mexican national team coach Javier Aguirre during a decorated 15-year professional career, Aloisi has had plenty of experience under some of the best coaching professionals. The Adelaide-born Aloisi joined the Heart in 2010 for his final season as a professional. He retired in 2011, and took over the club’s NYL team for the 2011-2012 season.' So it is three years and not two as stated elsewhere in this thread.

Has this actually been announced formally? If so, source please.

I first saw it about a week ago. About the time the tiles in the left-hand column were also changed? Can't be any more definitive than that I'm afraid.

Isn't it an issue of whether we need to take this risk? We saw what happened with Vince Grella. Why take up a place in the 23 if we don't need to? With our four releases so far it's not as if we are pushed to accommodate players under the cap so IMO we ought to be looking elsewhere. As I've said before we need to be working to a recruiting plan not just picking up players on an ad hoc basis. Other clubs are targeting specific players and courting them sometimes for months before eventually getting their signatures.

Plenty of the bigger names pulling out of the game now. These exhibition games have always been a farce. Wouldn't go if you gave me a ticket.

It's a management issue. The emphasis seems to be on running banal Twitter opinion polls (favourite player from season 1 etc. - who cares might I ask?) rather than putting out more substantial information. Over our three years of existence I have e-mailed the club at least five times about the web-site - each time action has been taken but then we go into snooze mode again.

Been mentioned many times before. Seems inconsistent, doesn't it, with the emphasis the club places on using 'social media'? The site has been updated in the past 24 hours to remove the released players from the playing list, but still doesn't show the full list of those signed for next season (Mitchinson, Mauk and Ramsay missing). Agree with your basic sentiments - of all the HAL clubs it is MHFC that needs to keep its profile up during the off-season because we are the one facing the stiffest competition for media coverage.

Agreed KK. Arshavin ticks the boxes required for a marquee player. A non-Anglo attacking player with an EPL club that has essentially been a household word for decades. You just can't do better than that. Leaves most of the names mentioned on here so far for dead.

It's only 7th May. If we do sign a marquee player I reckon it won't be until August at the earliest...this thread has got a long time to run. This off-season already seems the most boring of the three we've had so far.

Foxey's match-day outfit irritates me at about the same level as the Heart web-site (which still shows players who we have released and doesn't show all those signed up for next season). Insignificant in itself but doesn't convey the image I'd like to see for MHFC.

You can add Kristian Sarkies and Sebastian Mattei to the list. IMO it's an image issue wrt to how the Melbourne football public see MHFC. If it's any run-of-the-mill A-League player who is ex-Victory I don't think we should sign him. But I guess we'd be pretty happy if it was Marco Rojas (just as an example). In general terms I endorse your view. Taking on board ex-Victory players simply makes us look as though we have no ideas of our own. And that doesn't help our image. Clearly no other Forest or Rams fans on here, these teams are massive rivals yet players from between these clubs every season. And they both worship the same Footballing God as well. It can work for Forest and Rams as they have long histories with clear distinctions. We really need to make our own mark and consistently stand for something. There may be an overlap with other clubs, we don't have to be different just for the sake of being different, but we do need to be loud, clear and consistent. There's no reason to avoid players who have played for MV but any player needs to fit into a clear philosophy rather than just being signed because they are good players or might be good players for Heart. We need to get back to our core philosophy and recruit players for specific roles within the team, rather than just coming up with names of who is available. And I'm not that confident that that's what we're going to do, although time will tell.

You can add Kristian Sarkies and Sebastian Mattei to the list. IMO it's an image issue wrt to how the Melbourne football public see MHFC. If it's any run-of-the-mill A-League player who is ex-Victory I don't think we should sign him. But I guess we'd be pretty happy if it was Marco Rojas (just as an example). In general terms I endorse your view. Taking on board ex-Victory players simply makes us look as though we have no ideas of our own. And that doesn't help our image.

Melburnian, this forum is headed 'Melbourne Heart FC Supporters.' Mate, I've taken a lot of notice of what you've said over the months, and you're entitled to your points of view and to express them on here, but it's just become repetitive whinging. If you are a supporter, lay off the criticism of everybody and everything.

I think you are only talking about the Matt Thompson of his last 1 and a half seasons at the club... If he had been played as a Box to Box Midfielder instead of as a Make Shift CB when he first arrived at the club, PPL would not be so quickly to snub the poor bloke. He was a prime victim to JVS's lack of respect for Genuine Expeirenced Central Defenders like the rest of all were in Season One and Season Two. I do agree with you there Cadete. Matt had an awful 2013, but what you say about S1 and S2 is spot on. Thommo wasn't the only player who suffered in S2 though. No point in re-opening old wounds, but I'll always feel that there were several whose careers stalled because of what happened to our style of football.

Mods, please close this thread and all others like it. Fed up with all this unsubstantiated rubbish.

I agree. And, TBH, I don't see what business it is of ours anyway. I don't understand why this forum seems to be obsessed with all this navel-gazing - does any other group of supporters anywhere go on like this? Possibly if their club is about to go out of business, but that's not the case with MHFC despite the naysayers. Someone said in one thread something like 'The Board 's job is to run the club, ours is to support the club' and I wholeheartedly (no pun) agree with that.

Biancorosso7, there won't be one. The Board runs the franchise according to the agreement between the licensee(s) and FFA and complying with any statutory requirements. There will be accountabilities to employees (including players) but AFAIK there is no accountability to anyone else. The accountability to us as season ticket holders expires at the conclusion of the last home game of the season. I don't believe there is any accountability to disclose to the public any details of the financial aspects of the club.

I think you'll find they are Hebrew names. Jobe certainly is, and Abe is a diminutive of Abraham. I'm probably being politically incorrect, but I can't resist the thought that if they have a sister she might be called Bebe...