Transfer Talk, Rumours and Speculation

[Mr MO]

12 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

I think he'll be a fantastic acquisition. Quick, mobile and creative, he's exactly what we need more of.

I can’t see how Nisbet and Arslan can play together in midfield, aren’t we worried about the defensive needs?

With all the praise for Arslan on the ball I’m not sure how many have noticed that his defensive efforts are extremely low, he’s missing the legs and engine for that.

[n i k o]

2 hours ago, Mr MO said:

I can’t see how Nisbet and Arslan can play together in midfield, aren’t we worried about the defensive needs?

With all the praise for Arslan on the ball I’m not sure how many have noticed that his defensive efforts are extremely low, he’s missing the legs and engine for that.

I think I jumped the gun a bit as praising him as our Mooy. Not quite. 

[Zanty]

8 hours ago, Mr MO said:

I can’t see how Nisbet and Arslan can play together in midfield, aren’t we worried about the defensive needs?

Nisbet is a workhorse, although playing more as a 10 he started as a 6 so defensively he is solid.

[Torn Asunder]

Also, if Nisbet misses match time for whatever reason, he can play against the kids at half time to get his fitness or form back

[citypool]

https://x.com/AleagueHub/status/1776172327153324272

[NewConvert]

9 hours ago, citypool said:

https://x.com/AleagueHub/status/1776172327153324272

Nah. Rather develop Caputo as a single striker - with two upfront maybe.

[jw1739]

12 hours ago, citypool said:

https://x.com/AleagueHub/status/1776172327153324272

Every club (and not only in our League) is following a lot of players at this time of a season - and indeed all the time. It's part of the job of a Director of Football or equivalent. Petrillo is on record as a saying this at least once. And James Poole is supposed to be doing that as well. With all the rules these days, not only caps but "fair play" rules, it's a very complex job. It's easy for someone like me to throw the criticisms around but these guys aren't being paid for nothing!

[NewConvert]

3 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Every club (and not only in our League) is following a lot of players at this time of a season - and indeed all the time. It's part of the job of a Director of Football or equivalent. Petrillo is on record as a saying this at least once. And James Poole is supposed to be doing that as well. With all the rules these days, not only caps but "fair play" rules, it's a very complex job. It's easy for someone like me to throw the criticisms around but these guys aren't being paid for nothing!

given what we know about the APL, I am not so sure

[jw1739]

24 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

given what we know about the APL, I am not so sure

Haven't heard a peep from APL on those 30 players they were chasing...can't afford it now...paying all those suits far too much.

[Mr MO]

11 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Every club (and not only in our League) is following a lot of players at this time of a season - and indeed all the time. It's part of the job of a Director of Football or equivalent. Petrillo is on record as a saying this at least once. And James Poole is supposed to be doing that as well. With all the rules these days, not only caps but "fair play" rules, it's a very complex job. It's easy for someone like me to throw the criticisms around but these guys aren't being paid for nothing!

Are we that impressed with Petrillo then? I’m still not convinced, I think he’s part of our problem and a key person within the issues behind the scenes. Winning trophies during covid times because we were the only team who could afford to keep a team together is hardly impressive from a recruitment point of view.

[jw1739]

2 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

Are we that impressed with Petrillo then? I’m still not convinced, I think he’s part of our problem and a key person within the issues behind the scenes. Winning trophies during covid times because we were the only team who could afford to keep a team together is hardly impressive from a recruitment point of view.

I'm not impressed with this season's squad. Almost certain that this will be the worst season since CFG bought the club.

[NewConvert]

Well every person at a club has a use by date and maybe Petrillo has reached his use by date.

[Mr MO]

7 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

Well every person at a club has a use by date and maybe Petrillo has reached his use by date.

Fully agreed. 

[neio]

Petrillo gets one more go at it. I don't think the players we have brought in have been bad (Natel aside) I just don't think they all fit in together and is that a him issue or a coaching issue.

Soup has been alright, Arslan is a baller, Sakhi was looking solid before he fucked off, I can see why Jakolis was worth a punt as a non visa player. 

Before this season he has been nearly flawless in who he has got it, he deserves to try and fix it. If next year it's still no good, then by all means let's look elsewhere 

[Mr MO]

5 hours ago, neio said:

Petrillo gets one more go at it. I don't think the players we have brought in have been bad (Natel aside) I just don't think they all fit in together and is that a him issue or a coaching issue.

Soup has been alright, Arslan is a baller, Sakhi was looking solid before he fucked off, I can see why Jakolis was worth a punt as a non visa player. 

Before this season he has been nearly flawless in who he has got it, he deserves to try and fix it. If next year it's still no good, then by all means let's look elsewhere 

This is exactly what Petrillo would be thinking…hmmm the players aren’t that bad, it worked in the previous seasons, head scratch, head scratch.  

I understand that many fans think the same without looking into the details perhaps but essentially we are just looking for excuses.

It’s complacency and being the oblivious/blind to the strength of your competition. Not making finals is just inexcusable. We’ve also missed out on some good money by not getting out of the CL group stage.

Coaching certainly plays a factor but a big group (too many to compensate) of our players just miss top 4 quality in skills, strength and agility. Think about Talbot’s final ball, Urgakovic or Jakolis finishing, Jeggo tackles - that’s not recruitment?

We can rave about Arslan all we want but he is limited in defensive capabilities, cannot run out games and needs a lot of defensive support - that’s not recruitment?

This year with all the CFG tools available was the time to show your recruitment skills, some key players left and a stronger league but he failed.

Yes we had injuries and player fall outs but not finishing in the top 6 without consequences, no I think it’s time for him to move on now.

Edited April 7 by Mr MO

[jw1739]

19 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

This is exactly what Petrillo would be thinking…hmmm the players aren’t that bad, it worked in the previous seasons, head scratch, head scratch.  

I understand that many fans think the same without looking into the details perhaps but essentially we are just looking for excuses.

It’s complacency and being the oblivious/blind to the strength of your competition. Not making finals is just inexcusable. We’ve also missed out on some good money by not getting out of the CL group stage.

Coaching certainly plays a factor but a big group (too many to compensate) of our players just miss top 4 quality in skills, strength and agility players. Think about Talbot’s final ball, Urgakovic or Jakolis finishing, Jeggo tackles - that’s not recruitment?

We can rave about Arslan all we want but he is limited defensive capabilities, cannot run out games and needs a lot of defensive support - that’s not recruitment?

This year with all the CFG tools was the time to show your recruitment skills, some key players left and a stronger league but he failed.

Yes we had injuries and player fall outs but not finishing in the top 6 without consequences, no I think it’s time for him to move on now.

IMO you must also look at established players who contracts expire this year, and look at performance rather than reputation. These players have also not delivered. Injuries - yes, but they still have not performed.

[Mr MO]

3 hours ago, neio said:

Before this season he has been nearly flawless in who he has got it, he deserves to try and fix it. If next year it's still no good, then by all means let's look elsewhere 

How long has Petrillo been with us? Wasn’t he also responsible for recruitment before our successful covid years? You could argue that we let several talented players go at an expensive of others.

Repeated this before but I’m just extremely critical here knowing we were reportedly the only club who had financial power to keep the squad at reasonable strength in the past covid seasons. So I dare say perhaps he hasn’t really proven himself?

 

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

IMO you must also look at established players who contracts expire this year, and look at performance rather than reputation. These players have also not delivered. Injuries - yes, but they still have not performed.

Yes that’s true. Hence I’ve mentioned it earlier, he’s in the midst of our our internal issues and contract talks - he’s Director of Football that goes further than only recruitment.

Edited April 7 by Mr MO

[fensaddler]

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.

[NewConvert]

44 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

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.

Every club anywhere in the world will hire players that don't work out for one reason or another. Ageing players are also an issue everywhere. The problem gets highlighted in the A-League because of the squad cap size which is a feature rather than a bug. Hence any club should only have two players that don't quite fit in. We have too many.

[mattyh001]

3 hours ago, fensaddler said:

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.

i'm not sure there is an easy, quick to fix answer here.  

to highlight this, i'll start with our three "big" name attackers going into this season (MaClaren, Leckie and Nabbout). they were all signed to three year deals (from my understanding via the pinned current squad thread) when they were 27, 30 and 28 respectively (as signed in June - Sept 2021). 

MaClaren was a Socceroo with little injury issues (or at least at the time from memory).  Leckie has been a star at a WC in the time since despite injury issues while Nabbout was a decent age. 

also remember this also includes two league premierships in that time where those players have featured prominantly (even with Leckie and Nabbout being injured at times).  so i don't think the 3 year deals those players signed is all that bad. 

three current defenders that were signed at the same time in mid 2021 was Good (3 year deal at age 28), Nuno Reis (3 year deal aged 30) and Galloway (aged 24 with a 4 year).  given that defenders tend to play better to an older age, i'd argue those deals have actually been fairly reasonable given the players in question and the success we have had over the last two seasons.

the other risk i foresee here the the Richie Garcia dilemma.  you can offer shorter term deals (Garcia only had a one season deal given injury history) with the risk the player comes really good and then fucks off to a bigger deal.  so you're dammed if you do when Garcia leaves and you are dammed if you don't (ie Leckie) when the injuries get the better of them on a longer deal.

and that doesnt even take into the Richard van der Venne / Thomas Lam fuck around.  you do your research, sign a quality player to a decent deal and get the goods during season one only for them to fuck off home sick.  you can probably add Sahki to that - was finally coming good so we buy out his deal only for some sort of bullshit to occur within two weeks later.

secondly, (and i've said something elsewhere that) having a mass change over with a loss in culture and a head coach whose too laid back (didnt or couldnt set a high standard / level of responsibility) makes it hard to keep players accountable.  the club should have taken that into account with how we set up going into the season.  if Rado needed a couple of proper hard nose pricks on his coaching staff then that's what should have happened.

 

edit: sorry for the long response; again no easy fix

Edited April 7 by mattyh001

[jw1739]

Of course there is no easy fix. A bit like climate change. Delay action for so long that the fix is as bad or worse in the short term as doing nothing.

I think that if you look at the statistics on transfermarkt you will see that league starts by players such as Reis, Nabbout and Leckie were relatively low compared with the season before. I did post those IIRC.

I don't think anyone is trying to say that, at the time, the 3-year deals were inappropriate. Or that we didn't win trophies. But with the benefit of hindsight it would IMO be foolish to give a player "just one more season" just for old times' sake.

[mattyh001]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Of course there is no easy fix. A bit like climate change. Delay action for so long that the fix is as bad or worse in the short term as doing nothing.

I think that if you look at the statistics on transfermarkt you will see that league starts by players such as Reis, Nabbout and Leckie were relatively low compared with the season before. I did post those IIRC.

I don't think anyone is trying to say that, at the time, the 3-year deals were inappropriate. Or that we didn't win trophies. But with the benefit of hindsight it would IMO be foolish to give a player "just one more season" just for old times' sake.

hope people havent interpreted my rant as me asking for one more season for old times sake

rather it can be very hard to take stock / break down our current predicament of our current season vs (a) the last two seasons and thereby (b) the reasons those players were given three year deals in 2021.

yes we can say with hindsight this season may have been one too many, but IMO it's a part of the broader aleague challenge of how you manage aleague rosters, salary caps, etc.

the only real way i could see long term deals (three years +) work is only the first two are locked in. aka players are offered 3 or 4 year deals as 2 year with 1 (+ 1) year options.

[fensaddler]

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. 

[jw1739]

44 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

... But we've often been too slow to give experience to younger players who might cover for them. 

I agree that this has been a big problem. I can't remember before PK but he was certainly guilty of this. 

[Mr MO]

4 hours ago, mattyh001 said:

i'm not sure there is an easy, quick to fix answer here.  

to highlight this, i'll start with our three "big" name attackers going into this season (MaClaren, Leckie and Nabbout). they were all signed to three year deals (from my understanding via the pinned current squad thread) when they were 27, 30 and 28 respectively (as signed in June - Sept 2021). 

MaClaren was a Socceroo with little injury issues (or at least at the time from memory).  Leckie has been a star at a WC in the time since despite injury issues while Nabbout was a decent age. 

also remember this also includes two league premierships in that time where those players have featured prominantly (even with Leckie and Nabbout being injured at times).  so i don't think the 3 year deals those players signed is all that bad. 

three current defenders that were signed at the same time in mid 2021 was Good (3 year deal at age 28), Nuno Reis (3 year deal aged 30) and Galloway (aged 24 with a 4 year).  given that defenders tend to play better to an older age, i'd argue those deals have actually been fairly reasonable given the players in question and the success we have had over the last two seasons.

the other risk i foresee here the the Richie Garcia dilemma.  you can offer shorter term deals (Garcia only had a one season deal given injury history) with the risk the player comes really good and then fucks off to a bigger deal.  so you're dammed if you do when Garcia leaves and you are dammed if you don't (ie Leckie) when the injuries get the better of them on a longer deal.

and that doesnt even take into the Richard van der Venne / Thomas Lam fuck around.  you do your research, sign a quality player to a decent deal and get the goods during season one only for them to fuck off home sick.  you can probably add Sahki to that - was finally coming good so we buy out his deal only for some sort of bullshit to occur within two weeks later.

secondly, (and i've said something elsewhere that) having a mass change over with a loss in culture and a head coach whose too laid back (didnt or couldnt set a high standard / level of responsibility) makes it hard to keep players accountable.  the club should have taken that into account with how we set up going into the season.  if Rado needed a couple of proper hard nose pricks on his coaching staff then that's what should have happened.

 

edit: sorry for the long response; again no easy fix

All the players you’ve mentioned are fair and reasonable in their contracts. I feel that’s the players around them which are us costing now. 

Lam and Soup are not a like for like, neither is Berisha, VDV with Urka and Lopane. With the latter being one of the most unexciting young players I’ve seen in a while after this much game time. 

Jeggo and Sakhi have nowhere near the grit Aidan brought.

Where’s the salary cap money gone we had in midfield last season?

Interestingly we’ve also let Behich go for money and we cashed in on some of the girls as well - this season wasn’t about getting the best results for the club on the field.

 

[mattyh001]

16 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

All the players you’ve mentioned are fair and reasonable in their contracts. I feel that’s the players around them which are us costing now. 

Lam and Soup are not a like for like, neither is Berisha, VDV with Urka and Lopane. With the latter being one of the most unexciting young players I’ve seen in a while after this much game time. 

Jeggo and Sakhi have nowhere near the grit Aidan brought.

Where’s the salary cap money gone we had in midfield last season?

Interestingly we’ve also let Behich go for money and we cashed in on some of the girls as well - this season wasn’t about getting the best results for the club on the field.

 

agree with the fact some of the new ones haven't lived up to the bill.

and considering that we started the season with Nuno Reis, Souprayen, Arslan and and Sakhi as our visas (Natel replaced Leckie or Nabbout as an inj replacement, Fernandez replaced Behich with the spot left by Sakhi) then you do wonder wtf was the last visa spot during preseason?  i think that adds to your point TBH

of course, Arslan is the one stand out.  i feel he has more than surpassed VDV, Berisha and Berenguer in those two advanced spots.  where people see his offensive output vs O'Neill's defensive dominance would be interesting.

and that's were i would maybe reframe some of the debate; how do we compare the efforts of VDV and Berisha (with Berengeur as the alternate) vs Sahki/Jeggo and Ugarkovic (with Lopane as the alternate)? 

what's interesting there is that we are talking about one offensive trio made up of visa players (who should be better) vs a midfield trio that's predominately Aussie (again we did leave a visa spot free so ...). 

so does that mean the local talent for pick up (or at least the current ones available) are just shit?  is it a fair comparison as O'Neil is effectively a walk up Socceroo - putting him on the level of most visa who succeed in this league.  maybe we were just so bloody lucky with him?

not trying to make excuses there either.  i just think there is so much to delve through

[jw1739]

44 minutes ago, mattyh001 said:

agree with the fact some of the new ones haven't lived up to the bill.

and considering that we started the season with Nuno Reis, Souprayen, Arslan and and Sakhi as our visas (Natel replaced Leckie or Nabbout as an inj replacement, Fernandez replaced Behich with the spot left by Sakhi) then you do wonder wtf was the last visa spot during preseason?  i think that adds to your point TBH

of course, Arslan is the one stand out.  i feel he has more than surpassed VDV, Berisha and Berenguer in those two advanced spots.  where people see his offensive output vs O'Neill's defensive dominance would be interesting.

and that's were i would maybe reframe some of the debate; how do we compare the efforts of VDV and Berisha (with Berengeur as the alternate) vs Sahki/Jeggo and Ugarkovic (with Lopane as the alternate)? 

what's interesting there is that we are talking about one offensive trio made up of visa players (who should be better) vs a midfield trio that's predominately Aussie (again we did leave a visa spot free so ...). 

so does that mean the local talent for pick up (or at least the current ones available) are just shit?  is it a fair comparison as O'Neil is effectively a walk up Socceroo - putting him on the level of most visa who succeed in this league.  maybe we were just so bloody lucky with him?

not trying to make excuses there either.  i just think there is so much to delve through

IMO several of us are not convinced that Natel was an injury replacement - if he was he must have broken some sort of record in the time it took for the Australian visa to be obtained.

Arslan is definitely the pick of the bunch and well justifies his recruitment. Sakhi and Souprayen maybe (but three lefty CBs doesn't seem sensible), but not Natel.

Edited April 7 by jw1739

[HughJass]

 

 

[Mr MO]

20 minutes ago, HughJass said:

 

 

I think Good’s wages were mostly out of the cap under the loyalty rules.

[Baka1]

I’ll take Joel Matip. Free agent end of season, wrong side of 30, centre back and currently nursing an ACL injury he suffered this year. 

[MHFC-FAN]

4 hours ago, HughJass said:

 

 

Bit of a shame, I'd have considered Good for one more season...

[fensaddler]

1 hour ago, MHFC-FAN said:

Bit of a shame, I'd have considered Good for one more season...

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.

[jw1739]

Always sad to see a long-serving player depart, but for me I think it's for the best overall.  I'm prepared for a rebuild season until we hit our straps again and I think delaying it will just compound the problems of this season. I'm sure that we'll have a new coach and it will be better if he starts with a relatively new squad.

[NewConvert]

8 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Always sad to see a long-serving player depart, but for me I think it's for the best overall.  I'm prepared for a rebuild season until we hit our straps again and I think delaying it will just compound the problems of this season. I'm sure that we'll have a new coach and it will be better if he starts with a relatively new squad.

I think that one more season should be offered. I don't like the idea of losing almost the entire defence all at once. The days of having a third+ of player turn over were never good.

[jw1739]

3 hours ago, NewConvert said:

I think that one more season should be offered. I don't like the idea of losing almost the entire defence all at once. The days of having a third+ of player turn over were never good.

But it may have been for all we know. At his age perhaps he's received a better offer elsewhere.

All of these things sheet back to one issue. Recruiting and lengths of contracts.

[moops]

On 08/04/2024 at 9:31 PM, fensaddler said:

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.

There were rumours at the start of the season he wanted to go to India but the club denied the move, I have a feeling that it has had an impact on his performances if true, because there have been a number of games where he has been below par.

[jw1739]

What do we reckon about Jamie Young? No doubt that he's made some significant saves for us this season. Is he worth another season in the squad?

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

What do we reckon about Jamie Young? No doubt that he's made some significant saves for us this season. Is he worth another season in the squad?

He certainly has but has also cost us progression in the ACL. Distribution wise he is not a City goalkeeper, turn overrate from his long kicks is sitting over 90%. 

I'm grateful for the saves but we need to refresh the squad so it's a No for me.

[jw1739]

39 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

He certainly has but has also cost us progression in the ACL. Distribution wise he is not a City goalkeeper, turn overrate from his long kicks is sitting over 90%. 

I'm grateful for the saves but we need to refresh the squad so it's a No for me.

Glover cost us progression the season before. Interesting how we let Gauci go after stealing him from Adelaide and now he's in the NT. We don't really have a good record with the GK position. Even Tommy Sorensen fell out of favour in his second season.