How so?

Heart haven't trumpeted his resigning, so something must be going on.

But he hasn't for Heart yet, has he. :-"

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Hotrod in denial... Right here

It was tweeted by someone at the club wasn't it?

Local media bloke saying he heard it from the club. If it is who I think it is, he is fairly reliable.

Guys, look at the Central Coast Mariners Official Twitter - the guy running it must be a quasi-fanatic!

https://twitter.com/CCMariners

THIS is what I mean!

Constant news, obsession with # of followers, constant updates on memberships, membership number milestones, banter about it - including retorting those who belittle the Mariners on their feed. They even broke down their follower base via nationality. The image for the account is the banner with the member target on it.

I agree with GloryPerth in that its being left a bit late to find/sign anyone now getting so close to the season, but who knows what will happen.

lol JDW and I just said Garcia, as Hotrod said, nothing 'Official' declared yet, either way, 'for some reason'...

But even he aside, IF he out of the equation, Edwards may well sign one or two more but may be holding off indeed, incase squad demands warranted a signing in another position. Mariners and some other clubs always leave a squad spot free for the sake of this kind of flexibility so Edwards may be too.

Free kicks is an interesting one, I was under the impression that Clisby is quite capable of scoring from free kicks?
I don't mind Jambo taking them if he's just putting it into an area.

But the concerns at CB are still real - I just hope Glory don't suffer the kind of injury/absentee crisis they have had for a fair while (Thwaite-BVDB aside). And again, with the VISA spots free, surely Edwards will utilise one more on an area of weakness/lacking depth, be it CB or elsewhere.

FWIW I believe Clisby SHOULD be right to supplant Pantalidis for his spot not too soon. Panta could accelerate the process IF he sees one too many yellows or what not - though I'm being unfair there as Panta cleaned up his act in that area, last season. He seems to have all the goods and he's actually not AS young as some people presume - he's a big lad who's 21 going 22 this season!

Infact it's a shame that Clisby both, didn't join Glory a couple seasons earlier? And following that, isn't already a CB star with the club (With 30 odd appearances) through that? Why did it seem the only position open to West Aussies/Young local talents was RB and both Neville and then Risdon had to fight over that one possie, with the former ending up departing? Thankfully it's somewhat different now and the likes of Clisby can now feel they have a genuine chance of breaking into the first XI, in positions OTHER than the 'token quota' of RB!

Edited by GloryPerth: 31/7/2013 01:19:16 AM

I understand where your coming from AndyToddsElbow, but in a perfect world we would have had a new signed CB before the South Africa tour to get plenty of experience with. As far as blooded I have seen players play 5 games and then turn to absolute shite. So for me a true blooding is 10 games (personal opinion).

And as far as him stepping up to full time CB this year I think it will happen, We don't want him thrown in from game 1 as he is a way off that. But I think by the end of the season he could very well have cemented the CB partnership with Thwaite.

But we don't live in a perfect world and signings are made all the time closer to the start of the season. We have over 2 months to go, a new signing when they get back to Perth is hardly going to upset the applecart. As it is, if Evans signs, he'd have been over in South Africa anyway.

I think you're confusing being blooded to enough games to make an assessment on the talent/ability of a player.

Last decent play we had who could do a decent direct free-kick was Andrezinho. Who knows, perhaps Sidnei can curl them in.

Lets hope Sidnei can curl them.....
I've seen Mcgarry take free kicks - he generally gets the accurary every time but not enough power. He kind of tries to place it in the top corner, but hey, on target is better than anything we have previously witnessed.

I wouldn't mind seeing Nagai have a crack at free kicks, his shooting technique kind of has the unique 'Ronaldo' style do it, despite being off target or not enough power on his shots most of the time. If he can get it right, I can imagine his free kick would have that type of dip and power to it.

Late? There's over 2 months till the season starts. There is plenty of time. For example last season, over 30 signings were made in this time before the season started. It's not the end of the world and a starting CB would hopefully be a professional so it's not like they wont have any fitness base and if they're not 100% fit then there's Pants and Clisby to cover.

On Clisby, I consider "blooding youngsters" to mean giving them their first experience at top level, which three games is more than enough for a youngster to have been blooded. After all, the saying comes from a girl's first time ;)

Is it enough to know how good he is or will be? Of course not and you'd hope he'd get more chances this season but I would not be confident that he could step up to starting CB. That's too big a judgement to make.

Only problem I feel for Nagai is he would try and be fancy and try and hit a knuckleball like bale and ronaldo lol.
Would be great to see in the A league however.

p.s. Missed the Garcia update, anyone with solid link? (ie cntrl c+p)

"We're also experimenting in the sense that we are giving different players opportunities to play in different roles.

"We did that with Dean Evans, who played at centre-back and did very well there.

"In those respects, the trip is going extremely well."

Dean Evans played 90 minutes at CB last game in South Africa and from the looks of things Edwards was impressed. I've seen Dean play many times at Stirling and he is naturally a defensive midfielder however played CB when he went to Hong Kong and can do a very good job there too. Maybe Edwards is going to give him a chance? Alongside Clisby as depth for CB

Still very curious to see if 1 more VISA slot utilised - Upfront could STILL be considered lacking for depth? But then again with Smeltz, MacLaren, Makeche and even Sidnei, I suppose Glory could be considered 'sorted' there too?

What about DM? Considering Glory let go Miller AND Cordoba and have NOT replaced them yet, proper, except perhaps Cameron Edwards? Who'd technically be considered a rotation player in most circles? Looking at the squad, there only seems to be younger blokes like the Edwards brothers and O'Neill who, positionally, are the only options to partner Burns, aside from McGarry. Though McGarry may well be utilised in that advanced role behind Smeltz again, so if so, then Glory's centre midfield will certainly be 'technically' weaker than it was last season - atleast shorter term?

Burns, McGarry, Cam Eds, O'Neill, Thwaite, Pants.

Think we're covered for DM.

That's NOT covered. Remove:

Primary CBs: Thwaite and Pants

Strong AM option (Or was last season): McGarry

And you are left with Burns, Cam Eds and O'Neill.

Granted McGarry COULD drop back to partner Burns as he has before, but McGarry really hit it off in that more advanced role. I guess Sidnei Sciola is the variable - depends if he will be utilised LW or in McGarry's old possie?

IF McGarry remains advanced and Sidnei is LW, then Edwards must have alot of faith in Cameron and/or O'Neill to partner Burns?!

Edited by GloryPerth: 1/8/2013 01:21:36 PM

Perth Glory ended their pre-season tour of South Africa winless and without a goal in three matches following a 2-0 defeat to SuperSport United in Pretoria yesterday.

Glory had losses to MP Black Aces (1-0) and University of Pretoria FC (2-0) before meeting a SuperSport side who had beaten English Premier League heavyweights Manchester City in an exhibition match two weeks earlier.

In stark contrast to Glory's previous two opponents, SuperSport played an attractive style of game and scored either side of half-time to secure yesterday's win.

Glory coach Alistair Edwards took the opportunity to experiment with his side, changing all 10 outfield players on the hour mark.

Despite the results, Glory assistant coach Gareth Naven remained upbeat about the performances in the new-look team's first serious hit-outs of the pre-season.

"We had some good play within our structure and it was a great test for us out there today," Naven said.

"As a coaching staff, we can see that our players are beginning to understand our structure and style of play and they are getting better at producing the performances that are required.

"We are building slowly. We're only really into week four of our pre-season preparations and the players are taking on board everything that's being asked of them.

"That has certainly been reflected in our performances during our three games on tour, if not in the results."

Naven was delighted with the overall fitness of the Glory players, who have more than two months to prepare for the first game of the A-League season, at home to Adelaide United on October 13.

"We've tried to share an equal amount of game time out among the players during the trip and the level of competition that we've been up against has forced us to work really hard during the games," Naven said.

"We've had a fantastic training environment and a wonderful cultural experience as a playing group and I think all the players have really enjoyed being in such a beautiful country."

Glory will return to Perth over the weekend and resume pre-season training next week.