Transfer Talk, Rumours and Speculation

[belaguttman]

11 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

Genreau is the best young footballer in the A League by a country mile

Agree, we'd be crazy to let him go, especially as a regular starting XI level player

[citymad]

12 hours ago, belaguttman said:

Agree, we'd be crazy to let him go, especially as a regular starting XI level player

Has anybody considered that Genreau might want to leave? He might want to try his luck back O/S. He actually doesnt play that much with city and is not really a starting eleven player under Mombearts. 

Same can be said for Atkinson - maybe he wants a change in situation. 

[jw1739]

31 minutes ago, citymad said:

Has anybody considered that Genreau might want to leave? He might want to try his luck back O/S. He actually doesnt play that much with city and is not really a starting eleven player under Mombearts. 

Same can be said for Atkinson - maybe he wants a change in situation. 

Club needs to sort itself out. For the past few seasons we've had very average visa players who are not obviously better than the products of our youth system. With expansion of the League, it's not surprising therefore  that  promising young players are going to get offers and look elsewhere.

Seems to me we either change our policies wrt visa players and actually go out there to win something, or we're going to see the continual drift of players away from the club, and a consequent continued drift of interest away from the club as a whole. At the moment it is indeed hard to answer the question "What does Melbourne City stand for?"

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Club needs to sort itself out. For the past few seasons we've had very average visa players who are not obviously better than the products of our youth system. With expansion of the League, it's not surprising therefore  that  promising young players are going to get offers and look elsewhere.

Seems to me we either change our policies wrt visa players and actually go out there to win something, or we're going to see the continual drift of players away from the club, and a consequent continued drift of interest away from the club as a whole. At the moment it is indeed hard to answer the question "What does Melbourne City stand for?"

Yeah agree. We seem to be half way in between with mediocre foreigners and unexploited marquee spot keeping youngsters from playing. Then again, the coach wants to play the best eleven at his disposal regardless of age or status.

I’ve mentioned it before, be serious about the visa and marquee spots and play younger players to fill the team, this will also free up cash towards the visa players.

Would be a shame if these young players all leave as it defeats the purpose of our academy setup. Youth team is severely poorly this season as well.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Mr MO

[Shahanga]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Club needs to sort itself out. For the past few seasons we've had very average visa players who are not obviously better than the products of our youth system. With expansion of the League, it's not surprising therefore  that  promising young players are going to get offers and look elsewhere.

Seems to me we either change our policies wrt visa players and actually go out there to win something, or we're going to see the continual drift of players away from the club, and a consequent continued drift of interest away from the club as a whole. At the moment it is indeed hard to answer the question "What does Melbourne City stand for?"

Been thinking about this for a while. 
with the strength of our youth programme I think we have a different potential pathway to success of the other clubs. 
I would like us to back the quality youth more and instead of signing the best 5 foreigners we can afford/find under the cap, maybe only sign 2 or 3 bloody good ones.

[Harrison]

28 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

Been thinking about this for a while. 
with the strength of our youth programme I think we have a different potential pathway to success of the other clubs. 
I would like us to back the quality youth more and instead of signing the best 5 foreigners we can afford/find under the cap, maybe only sign 2 or 3 bloody good ones.

Interesting theory. I think with the maturation and development of the Y-League teams and the new proper academies, and especially our CFA, the level of talent is probably quite good and is getting higher. Our young blokes Metcalfe, Genreau, Najjarine, Atkinson and Najjar are probably just as good as the older journeymen types we complain about, they just don’t have the same consistency. But it’s worth playing them because the benefits outweigh the costs in terms of on-field output. A team with those five plus a few good quality Australians and five foreign players would definitely be competitive, provided you get the foreign players right. We’ve got five of our 20 squad players as under-21 Australians, and the rule is every A-League squad has to have a minimum of three. Most clubs have three or four so we’ve got a good proportion. But I wouldn’t mind it up around six or seven if they’re very talented. 

[citymad]

15 hours ago, Shahanga said:

Genreau is the best young footballer in the A League by a country mile

I think this is a massive exaguration IMO. The kid is good but Riley McGree is by far the best young footballer based on actual output- goals and stats. And we should have kept him at City. Genreau has not scored a single goal and has one assist. How can he be the best? 

[jw1739]

1 minute ago, citymad said:

I think this is a massive exaguration IMO. The kid is good but Riley McGree is by far the best young footballer based on actual output- goals and stats. And we should have kept him at City. Genreau has not scored a single goal and has one assist. How can he be the best? 

Remember that McGree was never ours to keep. He was with us on loan from Brugge.

[Harrison]

6 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Remember that McGree was never ours to keep. He was with us on loan from Brugge.

Adelaide bought him though. If we wanted to we could’ve. I’m surprised we didn’t, but under Joyce he couldn’t shine. 

[citymad]

2 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Remember that McGree was never ours to keep. He was with us on loan from Brugge.

Adelaide Paid 150k for Riley outright. City should have been at least negotiating with Brugge for McGree. Pointless discussion now though, I realise that - my main point is that he is currently IMO, the best young player in the A league. Transfer market values him at $1 million. (Mclaren is 900k for comparison). Mcgree is currently 5th on the Golden boot Race and has recently missed 2- 3 games with a knee injury. 

Genreau does not really compare against those facts. 

I think Genreau is a fine player BTW.

[Nate]

Agreed with the above comments in that we should definitely play more to our strengths regarding our youth setup - it's the best in the country by some margin.

I'd love to see us jump off the recycling merry-go-round and avoid the likes of Griffiths and Jamo in the future and instead focus on stacking our cap with a few outstanding foreigners (eg. of the ilk of Ninkovic), any Socceroos internationals if they're available and then fill the rest of the team with the best youth in the country. 

It gives us a clear point of difference with regards to our identity and potentially even a point of difference on the pitch.

[Shahanga]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Remember that McGree was never ours to keep. He was with us on loan from Brugge.

Yeah kind of forgot about McGree when I posted, wondered who’d pick me up. 
McGree has been starting in the A League so long I tend to forget how young he is.

I am a huge fan of Genreau though, who I think is a better player already than Luna or Berenguer for instance. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Shahanga

[wombegongal]

I often think City should be run like OL in France. Bring in our youth and only exceptional players from outside our system. Unfortunately the A-league doesn't set up incentives to develop youth.

[n i k o]

57 minutes ago, wombegongal said:

I often think City should be run like OL in France. Bring in our youth and only exceptional players from outside our system. Unfortunately the A-league doesn't set up incentives to develop youth.

Or for bringing in exceptional players for that matter

[jw1739]

58 minutes ago, wombegongal said:

I often think City should be run like OL in France. Bring in our youth and only exceptional players from outside our system. Unfortunately the A-league doesn't set up incentives to develop youth.

I see the incentive as being the development of a club that fans and the general public can identify with and believe in, and therefore support. At the moment we have nothing that we can identify with. You have only to look at this forum and the pitiful number of participants to see that.

[playmaker]

21 hours ago, Shahanga said:

Genreau is the best young footballer in the A League by a country mile

Haven't seen it with my own eyes yet. Has done Good things on occasions, better than Metcalfe, but the bar is pretty low imo

[wombegongal]

4 hours ago, jw1739 said:

I see the incentive as being the development of a club that fans and the general public can identify with and believe in, and therefore support. At the moment we have nothing that we can identify with. You have only to look at this forum and the pitiful number of participants to see that.

I agree with all you have said there. The issue I'm pointing to is developing and retaining good young players with how the league is structured. Take for example Central Coast who bring through plenty of players that simply get poached by other 'bigger' clubs. On top of that the best talent (ie Arzani) go overseas ASAP (fair enogh tbh). These are the challenges of that type of approach.

[CityBoyz]

In an ideal world we should target Hatem  Ben Arfa. 

ideal creative midfielder we need 
 

 

[Embee]

1 hour ago, CityBoyz said:

In an ideal world we should target Hatem  Ben Arfa. 

ideal creative midfielder we need 
 

 

Also weak as piss upstairs. The last type of personality we need in a squad that folds at the first sign of trouble.

[Imtellingyou]

We just need a proven mentally strong players: Redmayne Zullo Retre Wilkinson Brattan Caceres. 

[Dylan]

I think its about time we drop the 25-30yr old age bracket and go for someone older, a diamante/castro/Ninko type

 

[CityBoyz]

22 minutes ago, Embee said:

Also weak as piss upstairs. The last type of personality we need in a squad that folds at the first sign of trouble.

Our whole squad goes missing when first sign of heat is put on them. 
 

cant think of any other free agents that are attacking midfielders who could break a block down. Cause every team has worked us out put bodies behind the ball cause they know we can’t break them down and resort to long shots and they counter attack us and were open for business been going on for seasons not just this one. Happened in the 1-1 derby Last year. 

[Embee]

3 minutes ago, CityBoyz said:

Our whole squad goes missing when first sign of heat is put on them. 
 

cant think of any other free agents that are attacking midfielders who could break a block down. Cause every team has worked us out put bodies behind the ball cause they know we can’t break them down and resort to long shots and they counter attack us and were open for business been going on for seasons not just this one. Happened in the 1-1 derby Last year. 

Agree, which is why I wouldn't want to bring another weak character into the dressing room.

There's no doubting HBA's ability, but he's the last kind of personality we need at this club.

Must concur with @Dylan here, I'm not necessarily a fan of the over the hill VISA approach, but maybe we need to explore that in this position. Finding a solid #10 in their prime that is willing to come down here is going to be difficult.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Embee

[Mr MO]

What do we all think guys? Every season we hope for a good injection of quality in January but it rarely happens - will this year be any different.

Harrison and Novillo are the only two I can  think of. 

[CityBoyz]

18 minutes ago, Embee said:

Agree, which is why I wouldn't want to bring another weak character into the dressing room.

There's no doubting HBA's ability, but he's the last kind of personality we need at this club.

Must concur with @Dylan here, I'm not necessarily a fan of the over the hill VISA approach, but maybe we need to explore that in this position. Finding a solid #10 in their prime that is willing to come down here is going to be difficult.

We probably have to but we should have targeted Baumjohan in the transfer window.  

[CityBoyz]

CAM Free Agents 

https://www.transfermarkt.com/spieler/vertragslosespieler/statistik/1/plus//galerie/0?ausrichtung=Mittelfeld&spielerposition_id=10&land_id=alle&altersklasse=&wettbewerb_id=alle&seit=alle&yt0=Show

[belaguttman]

The problem isn't with the individuals, look at the smurfs that feature Redmayne, Brattan, Retre and Zullo as starting regulars, all played for us. Look at Perth: Killer, Bruno, Franjic, all played for us. It's a group mentality issue, it's not the individuals. Part of the problem is in looking for individuals to solve a group mentality problem

Edited December 30, 2019 by belaguttman

[rass]

1 hour ago, Imtellingyou said:

We just need a proven mentally strong players: Redmayne Zullo Retre Wilkinson Brattan Caceres. 

What, the same 'mentally strong' players that were anything but when playing for us?

[Torn Asunder]

32 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

The problem isn't with the individuals, look at the smurfs that feature Redmayne, Brattan, Retre and Zullo as starting regulars, all played for us. Look at Perth: Killer, Bruno, Franjic, all played for us. It's a group mentality issue, it's not the individuals. Part of the problem is in looking for individuals to solve a group mentality problem

Without a maestro leading the way, the orchestra will fail, even if playing Beethoven's 9th ... 

[belaguttman]

10 minutes ago, rass said:

What, the same 'mentally strong' players that were anything but when playing for us?

My point, it's not about the individuals it's about the group culture. Everyone looks to someone else to save the game rather than taking their own responsibility. The group looks for a leader to save them, whereas only the group working together can save itself. It's worth reading about Bion's Basic Assumption groups to help understand. we have a dependant group 

1 minute ago, Torn Asunder said:

Without a maestro leading the way, the orchestra will fail, even if playing Beethoven's 9th ... 

If only the maestro takes responsibility for playing, the orchestra will sound bad

[Mr MO]

2 hours ago, belaguttman said:

The problem isn't with the individuals, look at the smurfs that feature Redmayne, Brattan, Retre and Zullo as starting regulars, all played for us. Look at Perth: Killer, Bruno, Franjic, all played for us. It's a group mentality issue, it's not the individuals. Part of the problem is in looking for individuals to solve a group mentality problem

I disagree, pretty much all those players you mentioned are on par or better than what we have in their respective positions. Expect for Redmayne, people complained about them without genuinely looking  at skill levels. Brattan is a better footballer than Griffiths and Zullo is a better player than Jamieson, it keeps going.

We should stop hiding behind the mentality rubbish, our players aren’t up to it sorry. It’s too easy to hide behind it, we can’t even score a proper goal against good teams if we don’t feed Macca properly, embarrassing.

Mentality and professionalism is only a part of a quality footballer, not the other way around.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Mr MO

[belaguttman]

12 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

I disagree, pretty much all those players you mentioned are on par or better than what we have in their respective positions. Expect for Redmayne, people complained about them without genuinely looking  at skill levels. Brattan is a better footballer than Griffiths and Zullo is a better player than Jamieson, it keeps going.

We should stopping hiding behind the mentality rubbish, our players aren’t up to it sorry. It’s too easy to hide behind it, we can’t even score a proper goal against good teams if we don’t feed Macca properly, embarrassing.

Mentality and professionalism is only a part of a quality footballer, not the other way around.

You're still thinking about individuals. I'm not suggesting that individual quality is unimportant, far from it. What I'm saying is that as well as looking at individuals, you need to look at how those individuals work together as a group, how the group manages challengers and adversity. If the group is looking for one player to save them then shutting down that single player paralyses the entire group

[Mr MO]

15 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

You're still thinking about individuals. I'm not suggesting that individual quality is unimportant, far from it. What I'm saying is that as well as looking at individuals, you need to look at how those individuals work together as a group, how the group manages challengers and adversity. If the group is looking for one player to save them then shutting down that single player paralyses the entire group

Okay apologies, I understand now. 

[Torn Asunder]

Our team is good, we know what we are trying to do, we are just missing the jewel in the crown. 

Like I said, there is not one player, other than maybe JMac if he gets proper service, that our oppositon fears ... 

Look at what happened when Ninkovich turned one of our players, or ran at us ... we fell to pieces, becuase that is what it takes to break down a team and make a genuine chance.  Who does that for us consistently?  Against the Jets, we played out of our skin, because of our one touch directness, and Generau killed it in that role, but that was a one-off, and partly cos the Jets were rubbish.  We need someone who can make something happen from midfield potentially everytime they are on the ball.  We would be out of sight if we had that player.  If we dont get that player in Jan, we will continue to just make up the numbers and we may, if we are lucky, squeeze into Asia, BUT I wouldnt bet on it.

[jw1739]

Looking at players in January is an indictment of our recruiting. But it's more than that IMO. The club does not have the ambition required to be consistent winners.  Our list of visa players is laughable really. The bar has never been set high enough, and "finals football" and "coming second" are just cop outs.

[Harrison]

10 minutes ago, Torn Asunder said:

Our team is good, we know what we are trying to do, we are just missing the jewel in the crown. 

Like I said, there is not one player, other than maybe JMac if he gets proper service, that our oppositon fears ... 

Look at what happened when Ninkovich turned one of our players, or ran at us ... we fell to pieces, becuase that is what it takes to break down a team and make a genuine chance.  Who does that for us consistently?  Against the Jets, we played out of our skin, because of our one touch directness, and Generau killed it in that role, but that was a one-off, and partly cos the Jets were rubbish.  We need someone who can make something happen from midfield potentially everytime they are on the ball.  We would be out of sight if we had that player.  If we dont get that player in Jan, we will continue to just make up the numbers and we may, if we are lucky, squeeze into Asia, BUT I wouldnt bet on it.

That kind of player is hard to find. I’m sure we’re looking for them but actually finding one and getting them here is tricky. 

Just go and grab David Silva at the end of the season and be done with it.

[Mr MO]

1 minute ago, Harrison said:

That kind of player is hard to find. I’m sure we’re looking for them but actually finding one and getting them here is tricky. 

Just go and grab David Silva at the end of the season and be done with it.

If we go out to find somebody with Florins budget than yes it’s going to be hard. 

[belaguttman]

8 minutes ago, Harrison said:

Just go and grab David Silva at the end of the season and be done with it.

Wet dream

[Imtellingyou]

We could get Morelos from Rangers  Scored 76 in Scotland but zero zilch against Celtic. Fits perfectly. 

[kingofhearts]

Tom rogic wants a transfer out of Celtic I'm hearing....