O.k. So Nabbout and Donachie have been shipped off.

For me, both were serviceable A League players and I would have been happy for them both to stay. I suspect that they must have been getting paid below what they were worth and were able to get substantial pay rises to leave.

For me, it's not these types of guys that are the issue, but rather players that either are just hanging around and not seeming to make big improvements or players that are too 'one dimensional' and can't adapt.
Lack of improvement-
I liked Josh Hope, but he's been around for years and is still just a bit part player off the bench. I'd let him go and have a look at another kid.
Kenny has to go. He's promised a bit, but has not delivered and it's time to replace with a kid coming through.
One dimensional players-
Anthony Lesiotis. Look, he could be a handy defensive midfielder, but he has not shown he can take on any attacking responsibility.

Having said that, I reckon we should have enough room now for some good recruitment, provided we get a manager who's into that sort of thing!

Daniel Sturridge is a free agent, highly doubt it’s even a possibility but I think it’s worth a shot 

Anthony Lesiotis has been good every time he’s played. Both in midfield and at right back. He’s also only 20. How could you let him go? 

————————Acton————————
Roux——Anderson—-NEW CB——Traore
————————Barnett———————-
——Kirdar————————-Broxham——
Rojas—————————————-Kruse—
——————-Lawrie-Lattanzio——————

Subs: Sutton, Carrigan, Nishikawa, Lesiotis, Elvis, NEW, NEW

I reckon this team should have first crack next season based on what we’ve seen at the conclusion of this season. 

Nail the imports and Victory can easily bounce back.

Unfortunately 1 quality import (Ola) and then Rojas in Jan doesn't cut it when the rest are average at best.

I have a feeling Nabbout was on really good money tbh Mark from Croydon. He's come back from O/S and was a Socceroo not that long ago.
I'm sure the club expected a lot more from him and probably realised he wasn't worth the dough he is currently on.

Obviously, investing in our current crop of youngsters that have done so well in the restart must be a priority.

Regarding the homegrown players salary cap rule, the official site says "Homegrown Players – A Club can spend an unlimited amount on 4 Australian Players aged 23 or younger that have come through the Club’s youth system".

Has anyone seen what qualifies a player as having come through a club's youth system? We only poached Barnett from the Roar in June 2019, so does that count?

Unfortunately it's only for four players max, so we'll probably fill the allowance with Kirdar, Anderson, Sutton and LLL, and that's leaving out Lauton, Carrigan, Brooks, Nishikawa and Hope as well as Barnett.

Trimmers cops a hard time sometimes, but with all these complicated rules it must be a real pain in the arse managing the team list, trying to lock in all these youngsters while keeping them assured they'll get their shot.

Can't wait until the cap is gone entirely or massively relaxed, because for the last 15 years it's been a massive policy lever pulled against making long term investments in Aussie youth, and the damage it's done is becoming more and more clear.

Don’t know how LLL would qualify and not Barnett. LLL joined the club more recently than Barnett. 

We'll need to look overseas for a striker to replace Toivonen, a midfielder to compliment Brox and a CB to sure up Anderson and Carrigan. If we can really nail those three signings and keep all our kids we can go far.

I've been doing my usual fantasy shopping of strikers coming off contract on Transfermarkt for our Toivonen replacement, and they're either probably financially out of reach (ie Vagner Love) or a bit meh, and either way will probably not want to come here during a pandemic.

The only answer for me might put a few noses out of joint. Besart Berisha. What's his contract situation at WU? My google-fu is failing me.

Fair point, my bad. I'm still not clear on what qualifies them though.

Worldwide search.... Andy Keogh

Giannou is out of contract. I reckon he’d be a great fit. 

How exactly has the salary cap restricted “long term investments in Aussie youth”?

do you think youth players will get 4-5 year deals if there was no cap?  

The cap makes it too much of a risk to make long term youth signings because if a player doesn't work out there's no room for anyone else, and there's no normal loan system nor a second division to loan them to. The concessions like the homegrown player rule only serve as an acknowledgement that the cap gets in the way of investing in youth, while also making things more complicated, and with the rules ever changing from season to season in our code's leadership chaos it makes it mission impossible for clubs and just becomes an incentive to recycle journeymen and hire overseas has-beens.


Yes. Not for every player of course, they'd have to earn it, but it would remove the disincentive for clubs to make investments like that.

One of the most tangible outcomes of this problem is that many of our youth players are leaving on free transfers due to these short term deals. According to FIFA's 2019 report on the transfer market (page 30), Australian clubs made less income on transfers than Iraq. Our Asian rivals Japan and Korea made 15 and 14 times more than us respectively. That's a problem.

Tbh I also thought of Bes as a possible poaching target.
He’s still got it!

That moment when you realise Kenny Athiu is older than Tom Rogic...

Kenny is roughly the same age as Jamie Maclaren. He is a prime example of the Aussie youth development system letting our youth down. With his physicality he should be a much more effective striker, yet our development system consistently under-develops strikers. I'd say that if JMac had not spent his teenage years in England, he would be no where near as good as he is today.

we need a good visa player striker, CAM and CB. Nail those and we'll be fine. 

problem is, do we even know what is going on next year in regards to cap? Teams are signing playes not knowing what will unfold next season. 

Also, rumours doing the rounds that Elvis has re-signed for 2 years. 

I agree. He's a Melbourne boy as well, so he might like to come home to play.

When you look at the players that we have let go (for whatever reason) over the past couple of seasons, you can see that we are in a state of decline.
Milligan, Berisha, Valeri, Troisi, Honda, Barbarouses, Antonis, George, Deng, Baena.

I think all of these players would have been able to walk straight back into our starting team at the start of this season (when we had Toivonen, Basha, Dobras, Poulsen, etc).

I know some of the movements were unavoidable (eg. Honda, Valeri and maybe others), but it just seems we haven't put in place a long term strategy to keep some of the good players for 3-4 seasons and then have a replacement plan in mind. 

Many of the movements are symptoms of bigger issues. If we had no cap/marquee system, I'm sure MV would have just matched/exceeded SFC's offer for Kosta. Players going overseas like Antonis and Deng is always going to happen given the AL standing in the world. Planning 3-4 years into the future is extremely challenging for AL clubs, especially without a proper transfer/loans system.

Oh please no, this isn't the club for players that "try hard". We need to build a squad that pushes Broxham out of the starting 11. That's when we know we have a decent squad. (Nothing against Brox, but he does his best work when under less pressure).

Its going to be a tough year to build a squad, and realistically when probably need to be building looking toward the season following, put the time into the kids,  in that case theres always a chance of things coming together early,  it is the a-league after all.

Given that the chance of relegation is off the table, it should be a no brainer that the club goes with the youngsters with minimal infusion of O/S talent. Certainly a way to galvanise the supporter base and possibly make a few legends of the club. Not forgetting the opportunity to cash in on some getting O/S offers.

had Kosta not had that year in Wellington between Victory stints, he would have stayed 12 months ago because we would have been able to pay a large chunk of his salary under the loyalty allowance and given him  the pay rise he deserved. 

With night curfew we now should be able to compete with Sydney in the transfer market 

Play the kids next year. 

Don't need much infusion to compliment the younger players. The youngsters will keep succeeding and will not leave either as long as they keep getting a fair go.

There's always room for o/s players,  but they still need to be driven when they come here.  They need to want to work with the kids, and realise it's not going to be a walk in the park straight up. 
Its going to be a tough one. 

Im not too sure who is out of contract but

Outs - Nabbout, Donachie, Athiu, Kamsoba, Hope, Roux

Retain: Traore, Lesiotis

Sign: Reserve Keeper, Centre Back, Right Full Back, Defensive Midfielder, Striker, Winger, Central Midfielder

Nabbout for the bin 

Keep Kirdar, LLL, Barnett and Brooks.

Find a new right back, centre back pairing (if not one to partner Anderson) and maybe a No.10 otherwise stick to Kirdar who has done more than Kiki Dobras.

And of course a striker to replace Toivonen.

Action is ok in goal for now.

Getting an healthy fit Kruse and Rojas will be crucial to..