Just checked ELO rankings recently. Noticed something that most people would find quite surprising... try to guess who is the australian player at the highest ELO ranked club??

Ill give you a tip... its not Mooy and Ryan's Brighton. Its not leckie's Hertha. Its not even Rogic and Arzani's Celtic. 

And whats more this player plays nearly every minute for his team unlike those above (bar Ryan)

So... which player and club is it??

One of Borrello, Degenek or Mabil.

Nope :) 

Borello's club is close at 1618 but just below this player's club.

Jeggo at Austria Wien?

Nope

Geez this is tough.

My next guess would be Danny Vukovic at Genk,

Good shout.. 8n fact after checking im going to have to change this question as Vukovic's club genk is exactky equal with the player im talking abouts club on 1623 points. 

So.. which Australian outfield player plays for the highest elo ranked club

Any more guesses? 

Behich at his new Turkish club.

If it's not him then I have no idea.

Nope. This players club is ranked very comfortably above Behich's club and infact above any club in Turkey even Galatasaray

Turkish league has had a huge drop in points... now below dutch, swiss, and austrian league

Oh wow, I didn't realise that league declined so much.

In that case my last guess is Holland.

Hrustic? Amini? 

Bing bing bing.. you are correct! 

James fucking Holland is at the highest ranked club of any outfield australian player. And further still, he's played every competitive minute for them in both europe and the austrian league this season, just captained and scored for them in their eupoa league win against Rosenborg and has registered 5 assists i believe for them this season.

Any yet.... he is NOT apart of the socceroos squad and hasnt been since 2014

Yeah, have to admit that after this week, there seems little excuse why he isn't at least called up to the next squad just to see where he is at. Selections must be consistent - he has been performing well at a top level for a while now. Bring him in camp and see what he can do. Doesn't mean you necessarily have to play him. 
To fail to at least bring him in camp sends a signal that performing well at a high level won't even get you picked. It's not like he is 35+ and past it. I hope a journo asks Arnold about him at his next press conference 

He surely has to be on Arnie's radar,

I'd be happy to see him in the squad but who would be dropped? Amini?

Austrian League has certainly been going up in the last couple of years, but I’m unconvinced by it until I see more transfers to B1, EPL and Italy. I do think it’s a good starting point for Aussies moving to Europe (Better than when Holland first moved there).

Holland was a very regular start in B2 when he was there and any other regular Aussie starter in B2 would automatically be in the Roos frame.

(On a side note about league rankings/perceptions - Rangers beat Feyenoord overnight).

Scottish football is rising again back up to around 1340 points- couple of years ago was around 1250. Was always going to happen once Rangers could get back to the SPL and consolidate themselves and start producing in europe. The problem socttish football had was that without rangers your aberdeens, hearts etc were qualifying for europe and gettting smashed lowering the leagues ratings along with Celtics. I expect the Scottish league to keep improving its rank and hopefully back up to 15th on the UEFA league coofficients which will result in an automatic place in the CL rather than having to go through the qualifier route as happens now. 

Mark my words - give it a couple of years and the Austrian league will be above Russia's! They are nearly there now on the rankings Russia has fallen to like 1510, austria is at 1480 above the Netherlands, Swiss, Ukrainian, Greek and Turkish leagues. 

Interestingly England is now the highest ranking league in the world after Spain's long long rein. Granted too given euro results the past couple of years. Personally i think Pep has had a major effect on lifting English football 

The Austrian league is being dragged forward by Red Bull Salzburg. They have been ahead of everyone for a while but have really stepped up a gear in the last few years.

This chasm has forced the rest of the clubs to grow up and stop waiting for Salzburg to be shit and instead change their ways to make themselves competitive. Both the Vienna teams have rebuilt their stadiums so they can start challenging for titles again and teams in Linz and Graz like LASK and Sturm are resurgent again.

Last night Wolfsberger, which is known as a dinky little village club, smashed Borrusia Mönchengladbach 4-0 in Germany. 

To put Lask Linz's ELO rating of 1623 into perspective, this would put them 9th (of 16) in Serie A, 17th (4th last and just outside relegation in the premier league,  2nd last in La Liga, 11th in the Bundesliga (1 above Borello's Freiburg), 6th in France. 

LASK in modern times are a strong club (2nd in Austrian league) with good Euro results in a rising league that has performed reasonably well in europe in the last few years.... perspective needs to shift in how we see this league, club and the level that Holland is playing at.  Jeggo for instance looked very good against Kuwait and from the looks of it Holland is playing a level above Jeggo currently

Interesting posts guys, I had no idea that Austria was doing so well - I was always under the assumption that Portugal and Russia were the best outside the big 5. Interesting to see how far Turkey has fallen too - I remember the days of Galatasary and Fenerbache frequently making the RO16 in the CL. 

I would drop Amini personally. Overrated player IMO

Yeah Beşiktaş losing 4-2 to Slovan Bratislava whilst the later was only allowed to have children in the stands is a sign of the times.

Jeggo’s team is having a shocker this season.

It is funny you mention James Holland. After the Kuwait game with the success of Jeggo in the midfield I started to think where is James Holland these days. If you need some grunt in your midfield then James Holland is your man. Problem is he is 30 now. So there is an argument to prefer the likes of Amini who have been in the squads for a long time but haven't been getting the minutes they deserve. Wouldn't hurt to call him up for the next squad though.

30 can still take you to one more WC if we qualify.

pep impacts every country he works in.

it is no coincidence that spain won the world cup when he was at barca, germany when he was at munich,, and england had its best run in a long time now he is at man city.

James Holland at LASK.