I wouldn’t pay $250k for Troisi to be honest. Bloke seems to lack a single bone of loyalty to anything other than his bank account. 

Eric was problematic but he always looked like he cared. 

fair enough. i cant really begrudge a footballer for looking out for themselves, it is a merciless job. he may not care about the club but he does care about his performances (because that is where his next paycheck is coming from) i thought he looked quite good this season (i did mock him relentlessly in previous seasons for his row Z strike rate). the point is we need a left and right wing and Troisi can fill that roll. i think he is better than most in the a-league and unless robbie has a couple of wingers lined up i think he is worth a shot at 30.

 If you are worried about his loyalty, put him on a year contract and give him performance targets, that will get him playing for the money. 

And the apparent ego would probably be disruptive to building a cohesive squad from scratch.  

If Fowler has been trawling the lower leagues of England,I wonder where someone like Ryan Williams sits?He looks like a handy left winger.
Nathan Burns had a poor season.But at his best would be an asset.With O'Donovan,Mr X  and DWH central.
Williams left.Burns right .Thats the start of something promising.
I am hoping that if we are going  for Marquee Visa players ,they are midfielders.So we will be solid there for a change.

George Mells? 

Defs no, never ever Troisi, attitude not right for me. 
No to Burns, he never impresses me. 
Williams ok tho, on squad money tho not marquee type wage. 

George Mells? Never crossed my mind. 

Come on we need better than that!! 

Hard to get excited at this point.

Yeah, we seem to be recruiting like the mariners these past few years. 

So rumour control has the following players linked to Roar:

Roy O’Donovan. 
George Mells. 
Tom Aldred. 
Brad Inman. 

All pragmatic names but none likely to pass the paulc “excitement test” 

The Sturridge rumour doesn’t seem to be going away, probably because no one has come up with anything better. We still need a good AM though

Sturridge will go to Rangers, his earning potential is way above the A-League at the moment. Maybe in a couple of years if Fowler is still here? 

I think theres a dark “what if” shadow hanging across this preseason for Roar supporters - what if we have a third consecutive season of poor football? what if Fowler can’t coach? what if our signings are rubbish? 

None of which will will be addressed until late November when we’ve seen the team play over a few rounds (although a cup run would help lol). 

But the signings we’re likely to make are going to look more like the signings Ange made in his first year than the glitzy “feel good” signings I think many are hoping for. 

That list is underwhelming.  Hoping for a couple of nice surprises.

That’s kind of what I was alluding to with the “glitzy feel good signing” comment earlier. It’s impossible to know how good players in that list will be (except Roy) but drop <insert name here> and <insert name here> into that list and optimism improves. 

For me <insert name here> could be a Kosta or Luke Brattan type signing, a known quantity with proven quality. 

Im not sure that’s going to happen though, not least because the list of available names who’d meet that requirement is very short this year. 

I was trying to think back to Anges first signings, and did any of them come with a comfort blanket?? 

Can't get around the fact that with the number of players we need to bring in, a fair few of them aren't going to be exciting.

Yeah the only way I can see us landing Sturridge is a Broich type situation where he has become disillusioned with football in England and has been convinced to give Australia a go by a club legend that he respects. 
The Ange signings are exactly what we need the mid tier players who aren’t getting headlines in Australia but are playing a lot of games at a decent level and Inman and Aldred are exactly those types of players so hopefully we get a few more of them.

Ive heard a couple of other names through my coaching network (a few too many are ex-Roar players/coaches in there lol) and they are similar, so if there’s a pattern to all this it looks something like: 

- a good youth pedigree, ideally at a reputable Academy. 
- close to or played junior national team football (U23 etc) 
- Had potential but never quite made it (in England most likely) and now playing in the lower leagues. 
- Aged 25-30 so young enough to have another crack 
- Fit and playing in a 10-month season 
- their best years are ahead of them/they have potential 

If it’s something like that then there’s method in Fowler/Grants madness. 

Go on, drop some names 😆😆😆. But yeah if that is the method then it will hopefully be a good season next year, not that I have had the exact same feeling for most of the recent years

Agree with what you're saying, and the added competition for players from WU will certainly make recruitment an interesting task.  If Fowler can nab two Broich/Breisha type visa players, then that list doesn't look bad.  

Below is the squad for Ange's first full year (according to wiki 2010-11).  The bolded names he inherited from the previous year and he lost the 3 youth - Zullo et al to Holland.
Michael Theoklitos
Matt Smith
Shane Stefanutto (Vice Captain)
Ivan Franjic
Erik Paartalu
Kosta Barbarouses (Youth)
Massimo Murdocca
Jean Carlos Solórzano
Henrique
Matt Mundy
Rocco Visconte (Youth)
Matt McKay (Captain)
Daniel Bowles (Youth)
Mitch Nichols
Luke Brattan
Chris Bush (Youth)
Andrew Redmayne
James Meyer
Thomas Broich
Milan Susak

If Fowler can do half as well, then we're on our way.

What a great list of players 😁

every good side side needs a mix of player types. The one area that concerns me is the creative type, Broich was god-given in that regard. Who’s going to create opportunities for us? 

If there is another  area the signings have to address it’s leadership. Mckay and Steff made a great team but there’s no doubt Broich and Theo provides it too. 

Post on the Sydney FC forum saying Aiden O’Neill to Roar

Roy O’Donovan. 
George Mells. 
Tom Aldred. 
Brad Inman. 
Aiden O’Neill 






(okay, all are tenuous rumours at best ... but when the Courier Mail is your local rag you have to work off scraps 😂) 

well i have no connections and no insider information so i am going to do what the media does and blindly speculate. my criteria is 1- i know who the player is or can easily google them. 2- the player is currently out of contract or can conceivably be talked into a mutual termination 3- no other club has claimed them yet 4- the player has a vague link to either australia, qld, or fowler

so my names for the player signed but not announced by the roar are:
David Williams (just announced as parting ways with wello and no club has claimed him yet, played with the roar and fowler)
Luke Brattan (out of contract and no one has claimed him)
Bart Schenkveld (same as bratts)
roy Odonavan (well covered already)
George Mells. 
Tom Aldred. 
Brad Inman. 
Daniel Sturridge (liverpool link)
Tomi Juric
Jordan Lyden (released by Aston Villa, Aussie and without a club at the moment)
Terry Antonis (unsettled at Victory with Muscat gone)
Robbie Kruse
Jordan Holmes (released by Bournemouth we need to put in place our back up for Young)

Got to say if you could land that lot it would be an impressive squad lol 

That would be a great signing. He can definitely play and has a bit of ‘steel’ to his game. I think his family is in Brisbane.

Ill also flame the robbie Kruse fire by saying he has been spotted around brisbane in the last week (as well as in melbourne)

He’s an “old boy” at my junior club .... guess who’s coming to presentation day if it’s true 😂

One of the Roar Fans in Melbourne mob has a friend who spoke to RoD who said he’d signed. So confirmed 👍

There's our chance at a fair play award out the window :P

Not really, one offence then suspended for half of the season. Easy. 😬