Would like to see those first four come in for sure. I was a big fan of Tongyik before he got benched, that was pretty baffling tbh. 

I'm not sold on Athiu atm and I can't see Ben Arfa coming to Aus. We wouldn't offer the same money as MLS and this guy rejected a transfer away from PSG, where he is completely frozen out, because it involved a pay cut.

Gombau is better than Aloisi.Playing with a squad he inherited he flogged Aloisi with a squad he picked.
Saying Gombau is rubbish because of what he inheirted is the same as saying Ange was rubbish .He did no better with an inherited squad at Roar.
Talk of Aloisi being great at developing youth is a laugh.Just name one player he has developed.Agostino,Brady?
Macca was just waiting for game time.Borrello didnt get much game time.Petrat was warming the bench and traded.
O"Toole,warming the bench .Ingham warming the bench.Same as other youth..Yet some older guys with no legs who cant pass or defend get game time week after week.
Let's not start revising history and pretending Aloisi knows how to develop players.

Welcome to the old days as a Heart supporter!

I suppose the one youth story we can look at for JA is Caletti. He signed Joey. He also has him rotting on the bench behind an over-the-hill McKay.

@ crimsoncrusoe

“Let’s not start revising history ..” sure, let’s not do that, and certainly let’s not do the “everything Aloisi did is shit” thing either.

Maclaren and Borrello both credit Aloisi for their development, you, me, anyone can say what we want but I’d expect Taggart to listen to those two not the Internet.

Petratos though, for me, is the perfect example of what’s right, and wrong, under Aloisi. When JA arrived Pet-rat was lucky to make the bench, under Aloisi he was a regular and one of the best in the HAL regularly winning man of the match awards and tipped as a future Socceroo. That was Aloisi’s doing. So that’s what’s right.

Then you get, with the same player, what’s wrong.

Instead of kicking on with Petratos the next season Aloisi goes and signs an old Holman to effectively displace Petratos back to the bench and we went from young/fit/motivated/cheap to Holman who was older/unfit/unmotivated/expensive. That’s crap decision making from Aloisi.

As for the youth players, yup I agree with you, he hasn’t brought anyone through ... but I wasn’t talking about that,

So Waz, why is the first season: "The first year with JA he played all 29 games, scored 7 goals and assisted 7 goals."
But the next season is: "Roar made the unnecessary signing of Holman who displaced Petratos to the bench for much of the season"  It wasn;t JA who made that signing and dropped Petratos?
Seems when something good happens it's all because of JA and when Petratos is put on the bench and then leaves the club it's somehow not JA, but the Roar in general?  By the way, Petratos scored 5 goals in 27 games two seasons earlier, so it's not as if JA did wonders, eh?
I wonder what Clut would say about JA? Or Lambadaridis? Or Shannon Brady?
But you have a point - if we discount all the players who have not progressed under JA and only consider those that have, then yes, he's a great developer of young players.;)

Waz,We will have to disagree on Petrat.Even Aloisi didnt rate him that much.He replaced him.Plus lets not forget he was a frustrating players at times,whether that was Aloisi or him,who knows.He always had good techniique,but remember his back passing and one dimensinal cut in from the right?
He is a far better player under Merrick.Nothing to do with JA.
He now plays forward and roves around..But as we saw in the Socceroos,despite his good technique he can still play it safe amd pass backwards too much.
Whether JA teaches things to players ,i don't know.But I expect he does with his experience playing at a high level.Unfortunately it doesn't translate into a better performance playing for Roar.

We really need a lot of change imo
Maybe starting with a team (433) like this next season?

Young(C)
Jack-Papa-Tongyik-OToole
TK/McGree
DDS-O'Doherty
Eric-Taggart-??

GK, Caletti, Henrique, Akbari, ??

Genreau, Pierias, LDV, Athiu, couple of other fillers....

It's not a team that will win the league (unless that LW is taken up by a monster/Broich 2.0) but they would make the finals, be exciting to watch if coached right and be young enough to build into the next two-three seasons as a really scary team.

@ BrissyRoo

Aloisi doesn’t play 4-3-3 so it’s a question of whether he changes from 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 or sticks with it.

It doesn’t matter what formation he chooses but part of this seasons problem was the muddled thinking in formation (with a failed 3 at the back) and recruitment.

In terms of your 433 - how good could it be to have O’Doherty and DDS lining up behind Taggart lol?

They'd be bloody fast, that's for sure!

Konstandopoulos has been great for Adelaide as well and JA thought he was shit. We really could've used him this year too, tbh.

Adam Peacock said on the Fox Football Podcast that McKay has re-signed and said North/Maccarone are maybes. Roar are expected to make about 6 new signings. Guess that means about 10-11 of our 17 off-contract are getting new deals. That's disappointing to me and I'd really prefer to see those numbers inversed. Also have the Socceroos Sport Science guy sending one of his disciples to help Aloisi sort the team out next preseason.
Imagine the scenes if they announce those three have signed new deals on Facebook, etc. Comments will be getting deleted left, right and center 😂😂😂

@ BrissyRoo

Maccarone has no chance of getting re-signed.

North, if he is re-signed then the “boys club” is well and truly intact.

Mckay, yup, he’s been re-signed - as someone pointed out a week or so it’s typical Roar to push out stories about”last possible game” etc having already resigned.

For me 6 new signings are about right, mainly because they’re in the high end of the salary cap (2 visa players, striker, winger, AM, possible DM, possible LB) ... you can change out the low end players but it’s like-like on quality eg Pepper

Interesting Holman wasn’t mentioned??

Nah, but I get the feeling he's coming back, too. Which means very little change to JAs XI. Which means we will be older and blander or a one man team and he'll likely be fired by round ten.
Never say no chance... Hasn't announced his retirement yet

@ BrissyRoo

Funny enough I saw former MD Kingsman on twitter praising Maccarone and saying he hoped he’d be back for one more season .... obviously Mark hasn’t watched many games since he left us lol.

(It was a strange tweet tbh - why would the former MD stick his neck out over Maccarone? maybe HE signed him lol???)

But nah, he’s gone, much as I enjoyed watching his individual skills and football intelligence his signing has been a failure and his season ended in a whimper - it’s why they are going after Taggart.

Believe it when I see it is the mantra I'm taking. Nothing would surprise me at this point but.

Maccarone and White gone

I’m surprised about White, he was highly regarded.

Maccarone - a case of what could have been.

Connor O’Toole extends for 3 years:

https://www.brisbaneroar.com.au/news/young-defender-locks-away-long-term-future

Thank fuck.

Maccarone officially gone:

https://www.brisbaneroar.com.au/news/thankyou-massimo

Cant say I’ll miss him. He did ok for us though.

The average age of your squad must have dropped in half now?

I liked Maccarone , a class player just needed the service to suit his style .
Played st the highest level and deserves respect ,10 goals and 7 assists .
Not a bad return tbh

Maccarone (38)
Theo (37)
FBK (35)

all gone and taking our squads average age down by 4.7 years lol. We still have:

North (36)
Mckay (35)
Holman (34)

In principle I’ve no problem with 1-2 of them staying on in a balanced squad but North and Holman are risky given their injury records

I’d take Pepper over North, not as good but at least he’s available

And I’d prefer a DDS or O’Doherty over Holman (I’m not sure Akbari is ready or able to assume that role?)

Happily see all three go. I reckon all three will stay but. For North not to get a 'send off' like Theo to me screams he's staying. Same for McKay. I just don't know what to think anymore. More news required.

I’d bet money Mckay’s got a contract already - he’s fit as, rarely misses games, and will be dirt cheap on the cap. Too good to over look.

North I think is fine but he’s like a piece of furniture down there so may stay. Holman I’m not convinced wants to play on.

Probably but he should be missing games - he's not good enough any more, he was awful this season and pretty bad the year before. He needs to be playing sparingly from now on if he does come back. I can at least appreciate FBK acknowledging he would need to be a bench player and that's why he's retired. McKay is too arrogant to see that in himself imo.

We have the money so we should be getting good young players and planning long term.
There is absolutely no point keeping MCKay,Holman and North,other than as bench warmers.But good youth can do that as well.
None of those three players are up to it or worth building a squad around.
TK is still going to be there and he is very slow.
Get quality visa players and quality youth.
Pepper and O'Toole performed as well as any of our overpaid backs.
There's a lot of quality youth players around to throw some cash at.and force other clubs to spend big on to keep.
Grab some of those MV young players,who never get a game,.Italiano from Perth,etc.You could build a nice team with quality imports around them amd the best of what we have.

Jade North gone:

Brisbane Roar Football Club can today confirm the departure of Championship winning defender Jade North.

The 41-time former Socceroo, joined Brisbane during the Hyundai A-League 2012/13 season and went on to play 115 games for the Club over the past six seasons.

“I’d like to say thank you to everyone at the Club for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to be part of such a special Club,” North said on Thursday morning.

“To the boys, I’d like to wish them good luck in the future and I believe this talented group has the potential to be successful in the years ahead.

“From the kit man, to the football department, along with our dedicated administration, I’d like to say thank you for your hard work.

“I’ll never forget our passionate fans and winning that 2013/14 Championship at Suncorp Stadium against the Wanderers in front of a sea of orange.

“Queensland has embraced my family and I by always making us feel at home. I’m not sure what my short-term future holds but as one door closes another one opens.”

The Taree-born North, began his National Soccer League career at the Brisbane Strikers in 1998. The no-nonsense defender played in club competitions across Europe and Asia as well as representing Australia for over ten years.

Following today’s announcement Head Coach John Aloisi was full of praise for North’s contribution to the Roar and football in Australia.

“Jade’o is a Club legend who has achieved everything as a footballer. He is a leader both on and off the field and on behalf of the BRFC family I’d like to thank him for his hard work and contribution over the past six seasons,” Aloisi said.

“As a former teammate and having the pleasure to coach Jade, he is an outstanding defender and a top professional. I’d like to wish him the best of luck with his future endeavours.”

“Winning a Championship and being such an invaluable member of our Club over the last six seasons, I’m sure Jade will hold a special place in the hearts of our fans.”

ENDS

Shane Stefanutto
BRFC Media Manager

Great player and great person sad to see him go , injuries have killed him past couple of years though , would hope he stays on in some capacity at the club.