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Melbourne City sign Socceroo Neill Kilkenny from Preston North End

MATT WINDLEY, Herald Sun
30 minutes ago
Subscriber only

SOCCEROO Neil Kilkenny is coming home to the A-League.

But then again, Australia isn’t exactly home for the midfielder who has spent all but seven years of his life in England.

Kilkenny has signed a two-year deal with Melbourne City and trained with his new teammates for the first time on Monday.

The 30-year-old, who since 2004 has played in each of the Premier League, Championship and League One for clubs like Birmingham City, Leeds United and most recently Preston North End, said he had been seriously thinking about leaving England for a couple of years.

So when City made contact “six or seven weeks ago” it came at exactly the right time.

Kilkenny said he always wanted to play “abroad”.

And while he has both Aussie and British passports, Kilkenny still inadvertently lumps Australia in to that category.


Melbourne City signing Neil Kilkenny at Citys Bundoora headquarters today. Pic: Michael Klein
“I’ve lived most of my life in England,” Kilkenny told the Herald Sun.

“My partner is English, my three kids are English, so I don’t know what the future holds for us in the sense of where we’ll live after my career.

“But I’ve always kept an eye on the A-League and then this opportunity came up.

“I’ve always thought about going away from England, I spoke to people at the club and spoke to people about the club and everyone was very positive about what was going on, so I thought ‘why not? Let’s try something new’.”


Kilkenny was born in Enfield, Middlesex, moved to Brisbane with his parents and two older brothers when he was four and then back to England when he was 11.


He has only been to Melbourne once, when part of a Socceroos camp.

“I think it’s been 19 years since I’ve lived here, so it’s going to be a bit of a culture shock for me and especially my family because they’ve never been to Australia,” he said.

“It’s going to be an adventure, but an exciting one that we’re looking forward to.”


Neil Kilkenny in action for Australia at the 2011 Asian Cup.
Kilkenny feels the positivity with which A-League teams try to play will suit his style better than the route-one habits of many lower tier English sides.

He is emboldened, too, by the fact that Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou isn’t afraid to pick Australian-based players for the national team.

Kilkenny hasn’t played for the Socceroos since 2012, but he hasn’t given up on adding to his 14 caps.

“I’ve always wanted to play for the Socceroos and I still want to play.

“I still feel that I should be in the squad and obviously it’s my chance to prove it now, being more in front of the manager.”

 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league/melbourne-city-sign-socceroo-neill-kilkenny-from-preston-north-end/news-story/943f8655ff2bccdc650455ec8fbf5725

 

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=117213

Edited by jw1739
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9 minutes ago, haz said:

Can't see Melling getting much of a run this season.

Inb4 he returns to Adelaide in January

Inb4 melling has the season of his life and lame ass Brattan fucks off back to manchester :up:

but seriously you forget one thing; we ALWAYS have a massive injury list. Basically it's been "stay fit get games" case in point; Clisby, Jack

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6 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said:

Inb4 melling has the season of his life and lame ass Brattan fucks off back to manchester :up:

but seriously you forget one thing; we ALWAYS have a massive injury list. Basically it's been "stay fit get games" case in point; Clisby, Jack

Hope he does too,  Melling is the sort of player I want to come into the midfield with about 30 minutes to go and fuck shit up.

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8 minutes ago, tommac said:

Good signing- he's a very handy player and will do well in the A-league. Still a good age, and brings a lot of experience. Interesting to see what this means for the marquee we (surely) bring in. Malik definitely in the back 4. 

Surely we will be playing only 3 at the back. Probably going back to a 3-5-2 or similar

--------------------------------------Sørensen---------------------------------------------

------------Chapman--------------VISA CB-----------------------Malik-----------------

---------------------------------------Brattan-----------------------------------------------

Kamau/Fitzy-----------------Caceres/Kilkenny-------------------Brandan-----------

------------------------------VISA MARQUEE CAM--------------------------------------

-------------------Cahill-----------------------------------Fornaroli-------------------------

 

Pretty strong looking team if other decent signings are pulled off...... Now just to sign a new coach

Edited by haz
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Quote

City Signs Australian Midfielder

ihttp://www.melbournecityfc.com.au/di/library/Melbourne_Heart/bb/fb/neilkilkenny_1llec0fegh958zkhi5688vrp0.png?t=-41008435

NeilKilkenny
 
Melbourne City FC can announce it has signed Australian midfielder Neil Kilkenny on a two-year deal, adding depth to John van’t Schip’s midfield ahead of the Hyundai A-League 2016/17 Season.

Most recently based in England after completing the 2015/16 Football League Championship season with Preston North End, the player underwent his medical at the City Football Academy in Manchester last week, and arrived in Melbourne on Monday to commence training with his new teammates.

The 30-year-old midfielder is the Club’s eighth signing of the season; a creative player who thrives in linking defence with attack.

Born in England before moving to Australia as a child – and therefore eligible to play the Socceroos – Kilkenny’s playing career began at Arsenal FC’s youth academy.

Having progressed through Arsenal’s junior ranks, Kilkenny played for Birmingham City, Oldham Athletic, Leeds United, Bristol City and Preston North End, making over 300 appearances across a 12-year career in England.

The midfielder also represented England’s under-18s, under-20s and the Republic of Ireland’s under-19s, before settling his international career with Australia, featuring for the Olyroos on 10 occasions and earning 14 caps for the Socceroos.

 

image: http://images.performgroup.com/di/library/Melbourne_Heart/a1/a6/membership-banner_1cic336y1hwff1lv3qlc7asjdk.png?t=-279715108

membership-banner_1cic336y1hwff1lv3qlc7a

Head Coach John van’t Schip said: “Neil has played over a decade in England so has the right qualities to help deliver experience and leadership from the centre of midfield.

“We have followed Neil’s progress and believe he is the type of player who can fit into our system and execute the way we want to play.”

Kilkenny said: “I have always wanted to challenge myself in the A-League and this move has come at the perfect time.

“I’m excited to be playing for a team that plays a certain style of football; I’m looking forward to the challenge and the adventure and everything that surrounds this move and I can’t wait to start.”

Kilkenny’s arrival follows recent signings Manny Muscat, Bruce Kamau, Daniel Arzani, Ruon Tongyik and Luke Brattan and the re-signing of Dean Bouzanis, Nick Fitzgerald and Anthony Caceres.

 

- See more at: http://www.melbournecityfc.com.au/article/city-signs-australian-midfielder/uyf7a7lfspal15t1j4azwufu9#sthash.Ys7wG3HK.dpuf
Read more at http://www.melbournecityfc.com.au/article/city-signs-australian-midfielder/uyf7a7lfspal15t1j4azwufu9#aA4b1seCLlRRmlIR.99

 

That article was published at 4am in the morning??

Edited by haz
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50 minutes ago, haz said:

Surely we will be playing only 3 at the back. Probably going back to a 3-5-2 or similar

--------------------------------------Sørensen---------------------------------------------

------------Chapman--------------VISA CB-----------------------Malik-----------------

---------------------------------------Brattan-----------------------------------------------

Kamau/Fitzy-----------------Caceres/Kilkenny-------------------Brandan-----------

------------------------------VISA MARQUEE CAM--------------------------------------

-------------------Cahill-----------------------------------Fornaroli-------------------------

 

Pretty strong looking team if other decent signings are pulled off...... Now just to sign a new coach

To play three at the back you need two wing-backs. Brandan, Kamau and Fitzy are not defensive players by any means, so unless we sign a pair of wing-backs I can't see this happening.

As for Kilkenny, great signing imo. A nice bit of experience in the middle. For all the talk about us signing old and injured players our squad is looking very young this year and a bit of experience will probably go a long way.

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Great pedigree, quality style of play, good age. Top signing. I look forward to seeing Kilkenny play.

 

I agree about Malik. He'll play in defence for sure. 

 

In the midfield we now have excellent depth:

 

Brattan            Kilkenny

(Melling)            (Retre)

 

             Caceres

              (Arzani)

 

and if we signed a marquee no 10, that would give us the best midfield in the league for sure.

 

But regardless right now it's a really exciting midfield with a lot of technical quality spread across all of our midfielders.

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Think this will be a good signing, although I've read a few things where some have questioned his defensive output.

From what I can tell, his 13 league games last season was more down to falling out of favor than injury based.

Makes me wonder what's happening with Retre as opposed to Melling. Retre has always seemed the more inconsistent of the pair

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From what I've seen of him there's a number of qualities to like:

  • he will be our new dead ball specialist
  • has good vision in picking a pass which allows him to look to play forward at any chance he gets 
  • likes to play to a fast tempo, but equally when he holds possession its usually with a useful forward run
  • seems to be willing to take on a shot given time on the ball
  • has some decent evasion skills to open up options for himself

Not sure about his defensive work rate. Most of the videos are of him in attacking possession however overall happy with this signing. Has a very good pedigree of clubs so his experience will be great to have in the center of the pitch among our Aussie midfielders. 

 

 

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I must admit, I don't follow the lower leagues of England so I haven't seen much of this guy. Only a couple of cameos for the Socceroos a few years back (Asian Cup '11?).

Certainly looks like he can pick a pass. Hope he can have a similar impact to Engelaar, we've really missed a slightly deeper creative midfielder. Paartalu, Melling, Malik aren't really known for their passing - the opposite, really.

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2 minutes ago, n i k o said:

What are you looking forward to most this season?

 

"Simple. Its to win. I'm a winner. The club wants to win. I want to win. Hopefully all the players want to win and the fans want to win. So its all about winning for me."

Im more of a fan who prefers to win when we win and lose when we lose

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