I think we should let the Heart poach Pantelis off our hands. :)

Yeah Costanzo turned like a super-tanker, but he had vision and he was Adelaide thru & thru, so replacing him with Fyfe was a bad decsion IMO.

Diego spent way too much time on the injury table, but, as you say when he did play he was influential, and with him & Reid we could have at least one fit mid-field maestro

The other threads comments about Corflakes signing on for 3 got me to thinking about our best and worst players.

So guys....who is your top 5 and who is your bottom 5?

Heres mine:

Top 5 - Jamo, Galaka, Reid, Leckie, Cassio.

Bottom 5 - Pantelis, Hughes, Fyfe, Shin, Dodd.

This is based on current form.

I struggled to put Dodd in the bottom 5 but he has really pissed me off this year with his lack of consistency, passion and direction on the field. Most other years he would have made the top 5.

whats yours?

A really dull, featureless effort from Adelaide in Canberra this week ( Hughes was pathetic as usual ) makes me think that one man ( Reid ) shouldn't make that much difference, BUT IT DOES.

They always do though. You saw what happened to Victory sans Muscat and sans Hernandez we'd be a fucking joke of a team. Thankfully everyone else is interchangeable.

Same thing can be said about Sydney, without Colosimo or Brosque, both in career best form, they'd start dropping dramatically.

They always do though. You saw what happened to Victory sans Muscat and sans Hernandez we'd be a fucking joke of a team. Thankfully everyone else is interchangeable.

Same thing can be said about Sydney, without Colosimo or Brosque, both in career best form, they'd start dropping dramatically.

I think the mentality that Vidmar puts out to the team each week is also a big contributing factor. Whilst the guys played pretty ordinarily on Saturday, Vidmar has come out and said that he's pleased with the effort. No mention of what needs to be done better except for (again) the finishing in the final third... isn't this the shit he pulled out circa round 5-ish?

I am having a real hard time not giving up hope on Vidmar at the moment...

I agree with BU, Viddie can be the goods for us. What we are missing is ownership, someone who can talk to Viddie about his team selection etc and ask him how we can see improved results and then try and help him to implement them. The FFA are being quite good as far as owners are concerned, but you can tell the club is free wheeling along. With ownership comes direction.

You just hit the nail on the head there General.

Under Bianco's reign Viddie had a lot more accountabilty than he currently does. Not to say he doesnt want the best for our team - because he does - he just seems to perform better under the scrutiny of a demanding boss.

Brisbane are hurting and looking for a win. They'll see us as a potential three points. In this game we really need to come out and show that Hindmarsh is our ground and that the points here are our points. We need to change the 20 mins firing/70 minutes coasting into 90 mins of domination. Ok, I'd accept 85. :d

[size=7]United to seal long-term deal[/size]

VAL MIGLIACCIO
November 03, 2009 12:00am

United will this week secure the A-League's No. 1 shot-stopper Eugene Galekovic for an extended four-year deal.

Galekovic is destined to create Reds history by being offered the longest-term contract since the club's inception in 2003 after A-League clubs including new franchise Melbourne Heart were in the hunt to make him their top gloveman.

The twice-capped Socceroos keeper is tipped to put pen to paper before Adelaide faces Brisbane Roar at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.

However, Galekovic has contract clauses should the second-busiest A-League keeper, with 39 saves in 13 matches this season, attract interest from foreign clubs.

Galekovic's deal will keep the league's reigning Keeper of the Year at United until 2014.

The former Melbourne Victory keeper was off contract on June 30, 2010.

He became arguably the club's most important signing in 2007 when his superb form earned the Reds a 2008 Asian Champions League final berth, fifth place at last year's FIFA Club World Cup and a grand final runner-up medal this year.

The European transfer players' market has estimated that the Victorian-born keeper is now worth $1.63 million - the A-League's second-ranked fee behind Gold Coast United Socceroo Jason Culina, who has a $3.28 million price tag.

Galekovic was a target of Kyoto Purple Sanga during the Club World Cup campaign in Japan.

But the J-League's new transfer rules which now allow Japanese players to transfer to other clubs within Japan without compensation fees has made a Far East contract a much more difficult task.

Galekovic will be Adelaide's second player to re-sign after defender Robert Cornthwaite penned a three-year extension last week.

However, Adelaide still has an estimated nine players with uncertain futures at the end of the season.

Adelaide vice-captain Lucas Pantelis, skipper Travis Dodd, Cristiano, Alemao, Iain Fyfe, Paul Reid, Scott Jamieson and Kristian Sarkies are up for grabs when their terms expire in June next year.

I could handle Sarkies and Alemao being given extensions. Pantelis & Fyfe can piss off, Dodd needs to show his A game every week for me. Cristiano is harder to call, I think he deserves an extra year - but we could look for better replacements for a VISA player with new owners. If we drop a VISA player I would prefer to lose Cristiano over Alemao, though both are great players - but not when I compare them to Cassio (benchmark for a non Marquee VISA player in my not so humble opinion).

On the ownership front, if every memeber (I reckon we must have close to 10k) put up $1,000 we would have a nice little nest egg of $10million to run the club - I wonder if that is what they were contemplating with a Barca-esque style ownership plan...