Rellum Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Erik Paartalu is apparently on trial with the mob that got beaten by Victory, madness if he gets snapped up there. That is puzzling. The best explanation I can guess is that the Thai league has just started and apparently plays through to the start of November, so maybe Paartalu figures that playing a lot of matches just before the World Cup (even in an a not so good league) is one of the surest ways to get in the frame for the World Cup. And then he can maybe go to another club early next season, assuming he signs up for 1 season (If he went to Thailand for just 1 season, that could work out pretty well for Heart actually). On the international marquee front, it looks certain now that Rosicky will play on at Arsenal for another season, with Wenger saying a few days ago that "we have an agreement with him". Rosicky will be 34 before the start of the next A-League season, so his situation IMO is a reminder that class players can still produce a lot of quality football well into their mid-thirties, even sometimes at big clubs. Here's a few more guesses at possible international marquees (I guessed Engelaar in a list last time before he was signed, and I'm determined to guess the next marquee!). The reasoning behind this shortlist is that Man City might go after a Spanish speaking or perhaps Portuguese speaking player, as Manchester City seem to have signed a number of those players themselves in recent times (Negredo, Navas, Demichelis, Fernandinho etc.) and Xavi has been rumoured to be a possible NYCFC Marquee. Here's the list: Strikers Sergio Garcia de la Fuente 30 (June 2015) Rodrigo Palacio 32 (June 2015) Midfielders Jordi Gomez 28 (June 2014) Manuel Fernandes 28 (June 2014) Ever Banega 25 (June 2014) All exciting players IMO, and whilst they probably aren't well known names in Australia, that is probably just a reminder that there are many excellent players available that could come to the A-League and make a big splash ('a big player will develop into a big name', in the words of Begiristain). Ever Banega is no chance. The guy is part of the Argies world cup team. No way he is going to put hat at risk by coming here. Palacio maybe. The rats tails would please the marketing people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InMyHeart Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Top 4 Make grand final get to the ACL, by any means Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huzie Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Winning FFA cup first year would be a good start! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marteaux Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Anywhere I can find the list of contracted and I contracted heart players? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyheart Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Diamanti for marquee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommykins Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Anywhere I can find the list of contracted and I contracted heart players? The Wikipedia article on the subject is wrong. http://mhfcsupporters.com/topic/768-player-contracts/ the information would likely be in this thread, but not in a single post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ando Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 All season ticket packages (because they're not really 'memberships') that include all home games +1 other home game, be it a cup match, ACL, final etc. Might be a good incentive for the bandwagoners to get involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesla Posted March 7, 2014 Report Share Posted March 7, 2014 Like good coaches, good football operations managers are very rare in Australia IMO. Didulica is actually one of the better Australian football operations managers around, at least on paper he's one of the best (it shouldn't be forgotten that he lured the likes of Gerhardt, Tadic and Garcia to Heart with effectively no money, and he helped Heart first sign Germano for around 45,000 dollars). I'd really like to know who had most influence with regards to this season's signings, Didulica or Aloisi. Either way they are both culpable and deserve some blame.It should also be remembered by all that it's pretty much taken every A-League club 8 seasons to stop signing dud foreigners (and even now, a lot of clubs waste a lot of money on VISA players).Maybe someone with experience as a football operations manager (or 'director of football') at a European club could come to Heart and oversee our recruitment, I don't know.Whoever runs Heart for next season needs to give a lot of thought to who should scout and sign our players. One way to improve things is for Heart to stop paying it's staff some of the lowest wages in the A-League, so we can lure more skilled and capable staff. And if Heart spent more on players, that would probably help as well. There's no easy answers to bettering our player recruitment, though.IIRC Aloisi and Foxe spent about 3 weeks in the UK/Europe during the off-season and spoke to seven players about coming to play for Heart.I think it's been said before that it's the coach(es) who do the scouting and JD who deals with the contractual stuff of signings and transfers. He's credited with the transfer contract of our boomerang boy Eli Babalj.IIRC he said at some stage that the club receives as many as 40 contacts a month from agents peddling players to the A-League.I suppose my overwhelming feeling at this point is "how did we get it all so wrong?" We did make genuine offers to both Beckham and Grant Holt - albeit those offers were not good enough but they were made. It would seem that someone in the club, or perhaps outside it, was prepared to finance specific bums-on-seats overseas players, but not just any old hack wanting that final year's paypacket. Which is what we ended up with.The other thing that is pissing me right off is that we are the only team in the league that is unable to lift our game to occasionally get over the line against the weaker teams above us. We play poorly against the top teams, and then even worse against the other strugglers. I can't help but feel that there's an attitude problem - do just enough to get by but no more. I cannot get that "If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" statement out of my mind.Agree there's been too much of an emphasis at Heart on signing a 'marquee player' like Beckham or Holt, with the hope that by doing so Heart would flourish on the pitch and off the pitch. Another instance of Heart having a 'saviour mentality' or approach to things.I also agree about Heart probably having an attitude problem. I really think notions like 'attitude', 'mentality' and 'culture' are overused to explain things. But I do reckon attitude or culture is an issue at Heart, and David Williams phrase '"If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose" encapsulates it perfectly. Heart never winning a single pre-season game against A-League opposition further illustrates a poor attitude, as Heart players haven't shown enough motivation to win just 1 of these games across 4 pre-seasons.Us not winning after falling behind in something like 23 matches I'd also call more evidence of an unimpressive attitude.Too much of the time Heart players have an attitude where they just try to do the bare minimum, put in some effort in competitive season matches, and if we fall behind, oh well If we win, we win; if we lose, we lose".Heart having so many players from, I'll just say it, loser teams, probably partly explains the attitude as well. Williams for NQ Fury, 2 players from Gold Coast United in Golgol and Macallister, Mifsud of the Maltese national team..I'd also say that the attitude extends beyond the players. Organising pre-season matches against university teams and Goulburn and Peninsula 'all star' sides is a farce. Why should the players take pre-season seriously, when the administrators and/or coaches at Heart clearly don't? These wasteful pre-season games are another example of gimmickry and cheap promotion overriding the club's primary concern, football.I've talked many times about our club's anxiety, if you remember it started in season 2 after we had won 5 games straight and were suddenly second on the ladder and being talked about as likely finalists. Suddenly we lost 5 games including our only final. Now we see it appear if we are ever in the lead in a game and every time we are able to shoot on goal. The club that is anxious about success. We talk about a new coach but really the team should make use of a group therapist.our string of wins started when Madaschi started playing for us and ended when he left. AM is the most composed player we have ever had. Nothing to do with Anxiety it is to do with quality players. Not gambling on injured players and has beens.It also seemed to coincide with the point in our history where Dugandzic was in form, walking through other teams defences, and basically looking like the Messi of the A-League.Don't know why almost everyone in this thread seems to want to cut him. He's worth keeping just on the chance that he could return to such great form.Tesla gonna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrillhouse Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 add a goal keeper to the long list of things we need next season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphine Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 add a goal keeper to the long list of things we need next season Not after today. Redders was immense against the Jets. I think he's gradually improved all season actually, and really come into his own during our win streak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melburnian Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Redmayne in my opinion should not be first choice keeper if we want to enhance our chances of winning stuff. I don't rate him. He's a golden boy around the club for whatever reason but has some big deficiencies that need to be rectified. Even during our winning streak had some nervy moments and his command of the area was so so. He was protected by his teams defence. In saying that, he was good today. Along with Germano our best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 I think Redmayne would do better with an experienced keeper putting pressure on him. Seems to be more shaky now that Bolton has been replaced by Tando. In fact Redmayne looks a bit like Tando coming out to collect crosses. Another solid keeper would be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melburnian Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 For next season, a good chance to rid ourselves of some average players on good coin for example Mifsud, Williams, Ramsay and really put some better players in the cap and Australian Marquee spot. With our squad now we have shown we can beat anyone on our day, which to me is positive cause we have so much improvement in us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewConvert Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 If a player is contracted for next season and the club decides to pay out the contract does that count towards next season's salary cap? I note that depending on results people want to delist Ramsay or Redders but they are definitely contracted for next season, so if that was to happen and they were bought out then does that reduce the amount of money the club has to spend on players? Will this then lead to a smaller squad? BTW I don't believe that either player needs to be released, just have more time under JVS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melburnian Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Im not sure it is counted against the cap if you do release contracted players. If it is, be creative. You can find them an opportunity to release them to pursue that. Like what happened with DMac. In my opinion both Ramsay and Redmayne should be released if they are wages that don't fit their talent, like I have heard. I'd take both on smaller wages that befit them of squad players but not of highly paid salary cap players who should be starring on that wage. There is no doubt we have overpaid some players in the last couple of years to get them to stay here and recruit them. I'm hoping and believe our list management will significantly improve now we have the resources of the City Group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart of Melbourne Posted March 8, 2014 Report Share Posted March 8, 2014 Season now over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Hopefully what comes out of the match against Newcastle is a reality check. For the playing squad and the coaching team. In most other leagues around the world that match would have been a relegation scrap - and we weren't up to it. I keep hearing that we've shown that we can beat any team in the league. That may be true, but the facts show that we don't do it often enough. And we haven't done it often enough for four seasons. Irrespective of what happens in the remaining five matches I really hope we are going to see significant changes at Heart during the off-season. Right throughout the organisation. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tbitm Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) Season now over. Shit attitude. Win on sunday and we are back in the thick of it. Edited March 9, 2014 by Tbitm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mulhollanddrive Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 I just really wanted a 2nd away win, otherwise a few away losses in a row and the streak still exists just with one anomoly. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KautoStar1 Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 I'd release them ALL and start afresh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) We'll get nowhere by turning over the list every year. We need a striker. A marquee striker under 30 preferably. Otherwise, there's plenty of room to improve the squad by replacing outgoing players - Golgol, Macallister, Mifsud, Behich, Kewell?, Engelaar?, whichever young players won't make it from Vrankovic, Mitchinson, Walker etc., and probably a question mark over Williams considering he's taking a spot outside the cap. I'd probably keep one of Kewell or Engelaar, but probably not both, and not as a marquee. The other consideration for me is the 5 visa spots, of which one will open up (Mifsud), potentially two with Engelaar, and although I like both Gerhardt and Wielardt, they're basically used in the same position which means we don't really get full value from Gerhardt. So there's some room to recruit there too. But it's about what we need to improve the current squad, not wholesale changes for the sake of it. We always seem to make up to 10 squad changes from year to year which is just ridiculous. You rarely build a championship team in one off season of recruiting. It takes both continuity and constant tinkering. We seem to end up chasing our tails from year to year with so many changes, because there's always a percentage of new recruits who don't work out and need replacing again, on top of the natural list attrition from players who retire, those who move on to other leagues, and the young players who aren't good enough. Edited March 10, 2014 by Sash 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sash Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 If a player is contracted for next season and the club decides to pay out the contract does that count towards next season's salary cap? I note that depending on results people want to delist Ramsay or Redders but they are definitely contracted for next season, so if that was to happen and they were bought out then does that reduce the amount of money the club has to spend on players? Will this then lead to a smaller squad? BTW I don't believe that either player needs to be released, just have more time under JVS. Yes I'm pretty sure it does. The only way around it is by a mutual termination of the contract by player and club, or if the player finds another club who are willing to take over the contract or part of it. Pretty sure that's what happened with Flores - Ange wanted him out, Mariners took him on, but Victory have still been paying part of the contract I think. They also wanted to get rid of Bru, who has been contracted, but because he hasn't wanted to go, they haven't been able to get rid of him. They've frozen him out basically, but he's been training by himself, with no chance of getting in the matchday squad, and still getting paid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 If a player is contracted for next season and the club decides to pay out the contract does that count towards next season's salary cap? I note that depending on results people want to delist Ramsay or Redders but they are definitely contracted for next season, so if that was to happen and they were bought out then does that reduce the amount of money the club has to spend on players? Will this then lead to a smaller squad? BTW I don't believe that either player needs to be released, just have more time under JVS. Yes I'm pretty sure it does. The only way around it is by a mutual termination of the contract by player and club, or if the player finds another club who are willing to take over the contract or part of it. Pretty sure that's what happened with Flores - Ange wanted him out, Mariners took him on, but Victory have still been paying part of the contract I think. They also wanted to get rid of Bru, who has been contracted, but because he hasn't wanted to go, they haven't been able to get rid of him. They've frozen him out basically, but he's been training by himself, with no chance of getting in the matchday squad, and still getting paid. Jonathan Bru was released in early January. http://www.goal.com/en-au/news/4021/a-league/2014/01/07/4526811/melbourne-victory-release-jonathan-bru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR9 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 If a player is contracted for next season and the club decides to pay out the contract does that count towards next season's salary cap?No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melburnian Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 A marquee striker would give our squad something a level or two up on what we have. If the right player is chosen of course. I definitely think we need to upgrade our keeper also. Will be an interesting of season. The hype is massive, let's hope we have the resources now to improve our list enough to be in title contention next season. I'm confident with a bit of tinkering and development in the likes of Garruccio, Mauk etc we can improve enough. The Marquee spots and Visa spots are vital in all this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shahanga Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Would love to see Shane Long here, but think he is probably over city's budget & Hull are unlikely to let him go in any case Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD. Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Would love to see Shane Long here, but think he is probably over city's budget & Hull are unlikely to let him go in any case Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Shane Long is someone i would think Hull will never let go of, but he is a great striker. He is on a 3 year contract so i doubt he would come here anyway. Sent from my Computer using my Keyboard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shahanga Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Would love to see Shane Long here, but think he is probably over city's budget & Hull are unlikely to let him go in any case Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Shane Long is someone i would think Hull will never let go of, but he is a great striker. He is on a 3 year contract so i doubt he would come here anyway. Sent from my Computer using my Keyboard Indeed. Nice to dream though. (can't believe WBA sold him mid season to a then fellow struggler, and poetically may well go down as a consequence). This time also sent from my computer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 A marquee striker would give our squad something a level or two up on what we have. If the right player is chosen of course. I definitely think we need to upgrade our keeper also. Will be an interesting of season. The hype is massive, let's hope we have the resources now to improve our list enough to be in title contention next season. I'm confident with a bit of tinkering and development in the likes of Garruccio, Mauk etc we can improve enough. The Marquee spots and Visa spots are vital in all this. I know people don't particularly like a high turnover of players. But my view is that we do need to remove the proven deadwood and the "marginals" from our current squad one more time to give us a fresh start under our new owners. Supporters have put up with four seasons of pretty ordinary performances and results; and I'm not sure that they will keep coming if we have another similar season. IMO at the very least we need to be seen to be setting off in a new direction, even if it takes a little while to win some silverware. On the question of contract terminations and the salary cap I have so far failed to find a document setting out the rules. But I think it would be unusual to include contract terminations in "salaries and wages." When businesses restructure and have redundancies and retrenchments they normally put costs of same somewhere else in the accounts as a special item. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shahanga Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 If a player is contracted for next season and the club decides to pay out the contract does that count towards next season's salary cap? No. You sure? I expected the opposite. The idea of the salary cap is to constrain clubs spending to even up the league, if you allow this then you aren't constraining spending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart of Melbourne Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Samaras sent from my iPhone not using tap talk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murfy1 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) I don't think there are any hard-and-fast rules when it comes to A-League clubs agreeing with players to end their contracts. I think it's all pretty much a matter of both parties agreeing to end the contract. For instance, Massimo Murdocca and Brisbane Roar mutually agreed to end Murdocca's contract, which contracted Murdocca until the end of this season. I haven't seen it reported anywhere that Brisbane paid Murdocca anything, it just looks like an instance where Murdocca wanted away (to return to his hometown of Melbourne) and Brisbane were happy to oblige, so he seemingly left for free. At the other end of the spectrum, Sydney FC and Bosschaart agreed to part ways at the start of this season, with Sydney 'paying out the Dutchman's deal for the rest of the year'. So I'm of the opinion that contracts are mutually agreed to be terminated fairly commonly in the A-League, and much of the time clubs don't seem to have to 'pay out' contracts (Lustica, Macallister and Mebrahtu also seem to be examples of players leaving for nothing). As for paying out contracts, I think if Heart paid out contracts now (that is, this season), then it counts towards this season and not next season (like with Bosschart), although I'm not sure. And if Heart paid out contracts in the off-season (after this season and before next season), then I really don't know. But I think this is all academic, as I don't think Heart will pay out many, if any, contracts, after this season is finished. Heart has 2 spots free now, and several more contracts will be up at the end of the season. Next season Heart can sign up a new International marquee and a new Australian marquee, with both of Heart's marquees coming out of contract at season's end.BTW, there's a rumour on 442 that the Australian marquee deal will be a 2nd International marquee deal by next season. So if that eventuates, Heart will have more than enough ability to rebuild for next season. I'm also of the opinion that Heart shouldn't need to release more than 10 players at season's end to have a top class squad for next season. So I reckon Heart will have a fantastic squad next season even if Heart just release 5 players, because importantly Man City will provide real quality recruiting,which will more than compensate for Heart having a few average players. Edited March 10, 2014 by Murfy1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theresonlyonebzamora Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Samaras sent from my iPhone not using tap talk Let's not go through this again, but no. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tbitm Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Samaras sent from my iPhone not using tap talk Doubt that'd happen, but worth pointing out that he's eligible for aus marquee since his dad was born here in Melbourne. So he might actually consider it in the future if he has family here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silva10 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 I fully expect the international marquee player will be a quality midfielder The midfield is the engine room of any team and I would be surprised if the management didn't see this has a priority signing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewConvert Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 I don't think there are any hard-and-fast rules when it comes to A-League clubs agreeing with players to end their contracts. I think it's all pretty much a matter of both parties agreeing to end the contract. For instance, Massimo Murdocca and Brisbane Roar mutually agreed to end Murdocca's contract, which contracted Murdocca until the end of this season. I haven't seen it reported anywhere that Brisbane paid Murdocca anything, it just looks like an instance where Murdocca wanted away (to return to his hometown of Melbourne) and Brisbane were happy to oblige, so he seemingly left for free. At the other end of the spectrum, Sydney FC and Bosschaart agreed to part ways at the start of this season, with Sydney 'paying out the Dutchman's deal for the rest of the year'. So I'm of the opinion that contracts are mutually agreed to be terminated fairly commonly in the A-League, and much of the time clubs don't seem to have to 'pay out' contracts (Lustica, Macallister and Mebrahtu also seem to be examples of players leaving for nothing). As for paying out contracts, I think if Heart paid out contracts now (that is, this season), then it counts towards this season and not next season (like with Bosschart), although I'm not sure. And if Heart paid out contracts in the off-season (after this season and before next season), then I really don't know. But I think this is all academic, as I don't think Heart will pay out many, if any, contracts, after this season is finished. Heart has 2 spots free now, and several more contracts will be up at the end of the season. Next season Heart can sign up a new International marquee and a new Australian marquee, with both of Heart's marquees coming out of contract at season's end.BTW, there's a rumour on 442 that the Australian marquee deal will be a 2nd International marquee deal by next season. So if that eventuates, Heart will have more than enough ability to rebuild for next season. I'm also of the opinion that Heart shouldn't need to release more than 10 players at season's end to have a top class squad for next season. So I reckon Heart will have a fantastic squad next season even if Heart just release 5 players, because importantly Man City will provide real quality recruiting,which will more than compensate for Heart having a few average players. If there is a mutual desire to terminate a contract then that is good. Presumably the player will not lose out on a paycheck as they already have a club to go to. The real question arises if the club wishes to terminate the contract and the player does not. If there is only the remainder of the season then that would count against the current season's salary cap (something that was already on the budget). If there are additional seasons left in the contract then would those additional seasons count for their respective season, would they count in the current season or just the next season? The reason this question arose is that some people blogging wish to terminate Redder's and Ramsay's contract. If so, where would they account for the money spent? I also stated that I don't believe that either player should be let go, and you are totally correct by saying that there are enough players whose contracts finish at season's end that the list can be refurbished. And given the turn around in form since round 12 (when JA was axed) till now I would hate to be in the selection committee. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewmac Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 International Marquee has to be a striker , if you dont score you dont win , simples No to Samaras too !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony999 Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 Samaras? No f* way thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart of Melbourne Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 Your kidding yeah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyheart Posted March 11, 2014 Report Share Posted March 11, 2014 If we couldn't get Kennedy or McDonald and Samaras does have this Australian passport I'd take him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.