With the season fast approaching, even though not every club has filled their foreign player quota, how have the clubs gone recruiting foreigners.

Sydney and WSW seem to have excellent groups of foreigners, perhaps the best two groups.

WSW always have a dud signing in there ... normally costing $1m+ so best to wait and see lol

Jerks have: Wayne Brown, Roy O'Donovan, Ronald Vargas (marquee)

We have one squad spot remaining, which has been earmarked for a Chinese player. 

We have an extra visa spot open, IF we can release one of our other unwanted players. 

Overall the international signings have looked very good on paper.

Makes me want to cry

Adelaide: Isaias, Absalonsen, Matmour, Baba, Gulum*
Brisbane: Maccarone (MQ), Kristensen, Bautheac, Ben Khalfallah, Papadopoulos*, Young*
Mariners: Baro, Asdrubal, Hiariej, Brama
City: Budzinski (MQ), Fornaroli (MQ), Brandan, Jakobsen, Schenkeveld, Carrusca*, La Rocca*
Victory: M. Sanchez, Berisha (MQ), George, Barbarouses
Newcastle: Vargas (MQ), O'Donovan, Brown, Vujica*
Perth: Castro (MQ), Xavi Torres, Andreu, Keogh, Mills
Sydney: Adrian, Buijs, Ninkovic (MQ), Bobo (MQ), Kuleski*
Wellington: Finkler (MQ), Paracki, Krishna, Rossi, Kaluderovic, Abbas*
Wanderers: Bonevacia, Llorente, Riera (MQ), Cejudo (MQ), Kusukami


Glory win this for me, but Sydney, City and Adelaide are up there. Asterisk indicates a non visa foreigner (not including Kiwis) and obviously MQ indicates marquee

milan if you are doing non-visa foreigners..

Adding to it.. Jerks have Daniel Georgieski, Macedonian international Australian. And Steven Ugarkovic, Croatian U19 Australian. Glen Moss, NZ international Australian. 

Glory, Adelaide, Sydney and Wanderers. Victorys are pretty good too. 

Not sure how that could be normal considering this is the first season we've had a player costing $1m+ but ok. Besides, only had 1 big money flop so far anyway.

I think the Mariners have done quite well with Brama, Hiariej and Baro, if Asdrubal scores some goals then they have a very good group. 

Non-visa foreigners = Australians, this thread is not about Australians.

On paper it's always the Wanderers, but then they always seem to let you down.

Most teams do look like they've recruited well though.. 

@ sydnetcroatia

Last season wanderers had a million dollar visa player didn't they, the Italian fella, couldn't score for toffee. Or was it the season before?

Piovaccari was the season before and was on like 700-750k, not a million plus. Any foreign flop we've had, apart from him, have been more on the cheap side when it comes to visa players.

Im missing the signifiance of a 1mil+ players? Why that so different to any other marquee especially ones on 750k?

Foreigners are always hard togauge as 90% come in with good pedigree, but you never know how they will panout. Im excluding non-visa foreign as they don't take up a visa spot.

Retained (Includes transferred from another A-league Club) & New
Adelaide
Kept - Isaias, Baba
New - Absalonsen, Matmour, Adlung (Not officially confirmed, but 95% donedeal)

Brisbane: Kept - Kristensen, BenKhalfallah
New - Maccarone (MQ), Bautheac,

Mariners: Kept - Baro
New - Asdrubal, Hiariej, Brama

City: Kept - Fornaroli (MQ), Brandan,Jakobsen
New - Budzinski (MQ), Schenkeveld

Victory: Kept - Berisha(MQ), Barbarouses
New - M. Sanchez, George

Newcastle: Kept - O'Donovan, Brown
New - Vargas (MQ)

Perth: Kept - Castro (MQ), Andreu,Keogh, Mills
New - Xavi Torres

Sydney: Kept - Buijs, Ninkovic (MQ),Bobo (MQ)
New - Adrian

Wellington:Kept - Finkler(MQ), Krishna, Rossi, Kaluderovic (Ex brisbane)
New - Paracki

Wanderers: Kept - Bonevacia, Kusukami
New - Llorente, Riera (MQ),Cejudo (MQ)

Ive broken the rankings down into groups as I cannot split some teams.
Sydney & City are the best 2 for me
Adelaide & Perth in 3 & 4.
WSW, Victory & Wellington 5-7.
Newcatle, CCM & Brisbane 8-10.

Sorry if I was out by $250k ... makes all the difference.

The point stands though - how good they are on paper, how much they're paid, or what their track record is, or where they come from etc doesn't matter ... it's how they play come October

Several of the very best players have started out on low salaries and then been elevated to marquee .. judging them before they kicked a ball is really hard though.

Kuleski a Sydney born and raised foreigner? A bit harsh.

@ Totak

I'm a bit surprised by your 8-10 rating on Roars visa players:

Kristensen - arguably the best DM in the competition
Bautheac - possibly the best signing of the close season
kalfhallah - proven in the A League
Maccarone - played in Serie A last year, scores a goal every 3 games and has 5 in 5 preseason games

So if 80% of clubs have better visa players then there are truly some outstanding players out there.

I back 8-10. I gave higher weighting to foriengers that were retained over those brought in. It is possible they all pan out, but given the players I am not overly impressed by Brisbane foriegners.

Kristensen - Solid DM, but not best in the A-league by a long way. 34 Years old too.
Ben Kalfhallah - A-league quality winger that was on the outer at Victory. Might take time to adjust to a new team and change in philosophy. Also 34
Bautheac - Best signing of the season??? He played 17 games last year predominately as a LM/LW for a return of 2 assists. Year before 34 games for 3 Goals & 1 Assist. At best he is a very speculative proposition.
Maccarone - Yes he has been solid in preseason, but he is 38 and his last year in the Serie A was well down on his previous. Undoubtibly solid pickup, but there is risk there.

Well tell me every team you think the Roar have signed better Visa's than? Maccarone by the looks of it ran out of legs by last season with a total of 5 goals in 29 games so the 1 in 3 is completely misleading as he isn't that player anymore. Bautheac could be great but he has never been a great scorer or gets many assists either so we'll see if he is the player who can carry you to victory. The other 2 are solid signings but nothing special and what you seem so scared to admit, age is a problem.

ahh, the age thing - so never mind how good they are lol

Let's see what happens in the next couple of months; it's hard judging one visa player let alone a whole group 😉

I think you are under estimating Bautheac.

@ City Sam

Thankfully we will be able to stop the theorising soon hey.

Age is one consideration and one that you/others seem to put a lot of store on. But you can be old and still be good enough/fit enough though .... the one thing you can't be is young and experienced so with a lot of these visa players coming in that are say 27 it's questionable what extra they might bring? But again you can be young and good enough/fit enough but you can rarely be young and experienced...

The scrutiny in certain quarters is biased towards age though, Roar have a policy of playing players on ability not age - that's why they blood so many kids and why the likes of Broich play till they're 37 .

But City today sign an absoloute noboby but it's okay because he's 27, and Victory sign a guy that's spent 3 years in the European backwaters and looks like he has no right foot, but that's okay because he's only 30.

Time will tell.

Sydney, by a fair margin too. Laughable to list other clubs as remotely close. 
Our boys are proven not only as capable at this level, but as standouts and champions. The new boys at Glory, WSW, Roar etc have to firstly prove they are up to the requirements of the ALeague. 
Then you have our new boy who's not even a marquee and likely the best signing of any club this off-season. Only have to see how he was ripping apart City with ease in his first game to see his quality. Made someone like Brattan look very, very average. Even looked sharper than Ninkovic, and that's saying something. 

I was thinking Adelaide off the top of my head. But with that list before you..... can't go past Perth

Who really knows at this point, at the moment we can only speculate and his last few years haven't been that great. Its fine to be optimistic, but also need to be realistic that there is as much of a chance he is a squaddie as there is he turns into a players that rips the league a new one.

But at what point is the decline in physical abilities detrimental to the success of the team and there own individual ability. The reason why players who are 27 could be better is because they are in the prime of their career and one could argue someone who is in the prime will be better than someone who is a season or injury away from retirement even though they played at a higher level the majority of their career.

But the big reason why i think Roar haven't had a great window and will struggle is because i don't think having Maccarone to be the man to lead the line will lead to good things. We'll see if he proves most people wrong though but if i was a Roar supporter i'd have no faith in a 38 year old to replace the goals you have lost even slightly. 

we'll see how city looks through the new season and under a new coach when wazza falls to shit.

but sydney have four absolute beasts as marquees. the new guy adrian just murdered us in the cup.  they are going to be great to watch this year.  

I know I've said this before but this season might just be the best foreign contingent ever. And a couple clubs still have some space. Can't wait for the season.

Perth, Sydney, Wanderers are probably top 3 but Adelaide and city's are very good too. Victorys are mostly proven performers in berisha and kosta and have added two players with vast top flight experience. But every team in my opinion have recruited really well in regards to foreigners.