Fossie are you on drugs?

You poor miserable bastard you are so confused you have totally lost it.

Up to now Foster has been saying: "The standard in the old NSL was better than that of the A-League's and if we want more people to come and watch football we must improve the standard (that obviously didn't work for the old NSL, did it Fossie?).

Now, in his latest article in the Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/a-league/standard-falls-but-crowds-talent-on-rise/2008/01/12/1199988645160.html Fossie is telling us that in its 3rd year the A-League's quality of football has gone even further backwards, BUT the crowds are going through the roof!!!

Fossie, imagine that, hey? The new football fans must be so brain-dead, according to you, that are coming in increasing numbers to watch a game whose quality is in steady decline!

Fossie, can you start worrying more about the State Leagues, (because that's where your beloved ex-NSL clubs are buried) and leave the A-League alone? The A-League is thriving without your "technical expertise bulls**t" so f*** off man.[-x

Outstanding team, no. But there are many people who would argue that Joel Griffiths has been the standout of the season and has been excellent to date.

Far be it for me, someone who doesn't get paid to give a far more educated opinion to point out that it took six years for Aston Villa to establish any kind of dominace in the old League One back in the early 1900's. And there was no dominant force in his precious spannish football until the Real Madrid team of the 1950's came along.

And if the kids are improving but the quality of football is going down, the kids of the previosu two seasons must have been pretty horrible footballers.

There is still the question; does Craig Foster seriosuly believe that people are stupid enough to continue to to attend games where the football is getting worse or does he have his head up his arse yet again...I think we all know the answer to this.

I agree with foster fully that we do need to be producing players with way better technical abilities, this is espescially getting exposed with our younger u-17 and u-20 squads, we come up against technically better opponents who are also tactically superior and we get totally owned, we went from consistently being in the 1/4 finals of the u-17 world cup(even runners-up in 99) to bombing out first round with only one win from two campaigns and even not qualifying for 2007, obviously this is proof of the problem.

As i remember the start of this a-league season when every team were getting draws and there was a real lack of goals i can see how he might consider the quality has gone down we did lose a few good australian players and imports to overseas clubs that we failed to replace with players of equal quality,to name a few Leijer,Carle,Carney,Milton Rodriguez and fred werent replaced with the same quality and therefore the standard of the a-league goes down a notch just from not having players of these standards.

As for attendances, this doesnt mean that the standard of play is better,there are other factors to be considered, promotion of the a-league may have been broadcast to a wider audience,people have become more aware of football within australia and while the games have recently(last half of the season only) become more exciting(which is great in the sense of building fan bases) it doesnt necessarily mean its of better quality.

yeah you're right. Fans do not equal better quality. The crowds have gone up in places like QLD and CCM because they are winning.

I do think Foster is right to a degree about falling standards and again this must come back to the lack of games. Train all you want but if you are not competing your ability is going to suffer.
I would go so far to say Central Coast is the only team that has actually improved this year, and even they in the past few weeks have defended like the Keystone Cops. Yes Wellington are better than the Knights, that was hardly goig o be difficult, but frankly I've been embarrased watching the muppets they have running around in their defence too most weeks.
Bring on expansion asap.

I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if the FFA changed their marquee player arrangements they have in place now, would you guys here on the forum welcome the option of maybe increasing the number of marquee spots available to a team instead of dramatically increasing or lifting the salary cap altogether?

have thought about 2 options:

#The current 1.8 mil cap stays and there is an introduction of an Aussie marquee and a foreign marquee, would allow clubs to bring in some big names from overseas like Juninho, while still keeping important Aussie players like John Aloisi, or Archie Thompson.

#current cap stays with squad increase to 25 and the option of signing 3 players outside of the cap, could prove expensive for clubs if they really go for it with 3 big name players, but would give clubs a whole lot more flexibility and the ability to reward and keep hold of their better players, ala fred, by offering them an marquee slot, could also help with bringing back aging socceroos from overseas.

-Both options would still keep a-league clubs from overspending like northern spirit, without limiting the number of quality players we can have in our league.

But if the football was of say...Conference North/South, do you really think that the likes of Roar and CCM would be pulling large crowds still?? There is a certain correlation between winning, quality of football and crowd sizes.
The biggest problem has been leaky defences more than anything.
And once again, the main thing I noticed with the Craig Foster article was that as usual, he has been so quick to point out the problems with the league, but like so many other fools he has failed to provide any solutions appart from to wave a vague finger of blame in the general direction of the Salary Cap which isn't as easy to fix as one would think.

In terms of mooted Salary cap adjustments I suggest perhaps raising the cap from 1.8mil to perhaps something like 2mil or higher and changing the Marquee rules. Have three Marquee spots, one spot to be compulsary foreign, one spot to be compulsary Australian and the other to do with what they see fit.

I think raising the cap slightly isn't a bad idea. Allowing for multiple marquee players though could be a recipe for clubs getting themselves into all kinds of trouble just now. Also not sure that it could co-exist with league expansion at the present time. New teams could find themselves disadvantaged given that they already need to come up with the required start up fees. Potentially they would have to choose between not going down the multiple marquee path, diminishing their ability to compete on the park, or finding bucket loads more cash and put their financial survival on thin ice from the off.
Wise thing would be to move slowly, expand the league, get the youth league thing going and find some stability. Then look at the marquee and salary restrictions in the medium term.
The multiple marquee proposal sounds good though down the track.

Howso?

I thought that the Franchise lisencing fee bought the team a loan on wages for the squad for the season, it was just down to how they pay for the marquees that was the club's problems.
As for how the club deals with Marquees, that's up to them isn't it, it's not compulsary to fill the marquee player's slot.

In the mean time clubs lose players to overseas poachers who can offer larger contracts or because they can't fit all their players under the salary cap.

I used to respect Foster as a media pundit,but ever sice he had that "disscussion" with Ange Postegoglu(howeva u spell it)on SBS,the guy is a NOB.

why? the guy gave his opinion on a crap coach who had been left in an important position for far too long. Yes maybe he could have been more professional, but clearly this was just his passion for the game and the Aussie colours taking over. He hated seeing that nothing seemed to be done to fix our failing coaches. Its not acceptable what Ange was getting away with.

O and the quality has fallen, that seems pretty clear to me...

I don't see why people always attack Foster when he says the A-league is poor standard. Any major coach or whatever who has come here has said that the Australian game is a physical game with a never say die attitute. That won't win you a world cup.

I used to respect you until you made that post and made it public that it took you so long to realise he's a complete tosspot.

Even still, it's incredibly hypocritical for him to be saying some of the things he said when he doesn't have a coaching lisence himself.

Stevie Gerrard would disagree with that, he's said it is the way to win a WC...The Germans did it that way too.

To Craig Foster, everything is of a poor standard bar his beloved spain. Italy: "...below the standards of today and far from waht it used to be both on the pitch and off it...", England: [too many quotes to mention], The club world championship, Germany: "...not up to the standard of the rest of europe, there are a couple of teams that can run with the likes of Real Madrid but that's only really Bremen and Bayern Munich."...and then he throws in the A-League for good measure.

:lol: Post of the month right there :lol:

Why thankye. They leat you could have done is quote the whole sentence though. I think fat frank said something similar too...

I support Fossies latest comments - The crowds are growing, but the techical side is somewhat lacklastre. Pim Verbeek noticed this after 1 week of the A-league.

However, I feel Foster goes too far sometimes. It is like the man is all negative. He should remember the European club took along time to grow into what they are now. In the meanwhile, the Euro or South American leagues and the technical abilities of the players took along time too, to develop.
The A-league is 3 years old - it has just been born and trying to find its legs in the world. The finer detail regarding techique/skill will take a while yet.

In the past, Foster has often spoken about the level of coaching. Although i admit the coashing is not the best - and certain measures should be taken to improve the standard. Foster seems to voice his opinions and then hide behind the cameras. To be honest, I would love to see him take on a managerial role - given he has the answer to everything, and is able to criticise the poor standard of technique. Maybe he can improve the quality.

In reference to Technique - the following players are Shit/RUBBISH:
Ian Fyfe
Terry McFlynn

craig foster isnt a joke hes a bitter old man, hes jealous that simon hill, andrew orsatti and branko culina have had better jobs than his after being in the same position as fozzie himself a couple of years ago. what cuts him up the most though is that the man he verbally bashed on air ange postecoglu also has a job at fox sports. no doubt he google searches his name every night when he gets home to see who disagrees with him. hes probably signed up to fourfourtwo under the name "fozziereadyandwaitingforabetterjob" just so he can defend himself.
pity the only thing he can back himself up with is that he is leading the world game footy tipping, what a hero.

if we raised the salary cap we would still just be paying the same players more money because we already have the best australian players, its not like there is a bunch of higher quality players stuck in the vpl because there isnt enough money to buy them. also it is the australian league, we dont want squads full of second hand brazilians who just come here for money and to flaunt their fancy names. imo it would be better to have another marquee player so there is two or three per club. that would also help us do well in the asian champions league which would bring a profit no matter how much you payed your marquee player.

But we all know how that would end...

That's the point in raising the salary cap, so that they can be payed more to remove some of the allure of playing overseas so they stop poaching our tallent.

I don't have the figures but I'd be surprised if any of the clubs are even at break even. How are they going to afford it?


That is indeed the problem, how are they going to pay for them? True, filling the spots wouldn't be compulsory but surely not doing so, or not being able to afford to do so, would create a league of haves and have nots. Which may be fine down the track but when you are trying to establish markets and build a league it would be wise to retain some level of parity.


Seriously are we going to be able to stop that anyway? If they are good enough we can't compete in a price war. Unless you are talking about clubs carrying a squad of 15 to save some cash to splash on 3 marquees.

I don't know about the rest of the clubs but Melbourne is in the black I understand. The clubs aren't stupid, they dont' have to have the marquee spots filled, they aren't mandatory so if they can't afford it, they probably won't fill it.

If a club cant' afford atleast one marquee it probably shouldn't be in the league.
We have a league of haves and havenots already. Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide have. Wellington and Perth havenot. (sorry QLD, SSM and Newie, but i'm not quite sure what you fall into yet)

You'd certainly hope that there would be some players taht would be able to be retained, otherwise we're condemned to forever being a minor league from which other large european leagues syphoning off players.

Youre talking about clubs buying 3 Juninho's at the one time and having to pay 3 million a year plus normal players.

I think that having multiple marquee slots would be more for keeping players that have grown in stature but dont fit into the cap anymore, like the situation with fred, he was lost because Victory couldnt fit 222k into the cap, or just recruiting better players than Leandro Love.

Extra Marquee spots would allow this.

I can see where you are coming from. Not convinced it would work though, give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. Far bigger clubs than ours have run themselves into the ground. Only way you could ensure that wouldn't happen would be to put a ceiling on spending, and then it wouldn't be a marquee system would it.

No, I'm talking about ONE Juninho. One Australian Marquee (eg Archie Thompson) who's on less. And then if the clubs want a third marquee then they can have that.

actually, he's on 50k a week isn't he?

This is because they have aspirations of becoming a european powerhouse *glares at Leeds United* I think it's fairly safe to say that this isn't going to be an issue here. The clubs aren't stupid enough to run themselves that far into the red and the FFA won't let that happen, they keep tabs on all the clubs as is.

Afroman-My post was sortof referring to Mr Magoo's comments not yours, i only saw yours after i submitted mine.

Fred on 50k a week?Not unless your talking about the one in france, fred is getting paid 222k(USD) a year by DC united.

MrMagoo- maybe to stop the clubs "hanging"themselves there should be a cap of 500k? on the second and third marquee spots or the FFA would have to approve a signing before one is made, based on a clubs financial situation, the source of the money required and their ability to actually pay the salary.

I think I may have reada n extra zero in there then...Fred at Lyon is on closer to 80k a week for the record.

The FFA should have designated Marquee contracts so they can police how much is being poured into these players coffers in an attempt to save said hangings. some clubs wouldn't be able to afford the 500k, which is why changing the Marquees is better, there are a lot of players out there and there has got to be atleast one quality player who can fill the marquee slot for the club that's not going to cost them something they can't afford.

Centralised contracts for marquee players have been talked about before. It probably would be the best method if you want to go with multiple marquees, alhough the FFA is hardly flushed with cash themselves. Having the clubs manage it themselves is fraut with danger though. Finding the cash would be largely reliant upon generous benefactors in the form of the club owners. Major sponsers still seem a bit hard to come by, given that it took the Roar the biggest part of three seasons to come up with a front of shirt sponser. The problem with relying on the owners chequebook is that they may become bored with their new toy, get investigated by the ATO or drop dead and then you are in it deep.
I'm not saying your ideas are bad ones, just in my opinion it is a bit early in the day. I also don't mind losing a few players along the way as long as there is a stronger league in 10 years time. Besides I'm optimistic the league can renew itself with more quality youngsters like the Burns and Djite of last year and the Zullo and Kruse of this without breaking the bank.
What the clubs do need to wake up to is that they are operating in a World marketplace, signing players to short term contracts and letting them walk away for little or nothing isn't going to get us anywhere. Start demanding decent transfer fees and then the wage problem certainly lessens.

They dont' need to be, they're only mediating. Not paying the marquee player's wage.

It's all about knowing where to look. Industries which are looking to be advertising at the time the games are played are more likely to come aboard (eg food companies).

...or have an arrest warrant issued by the Thai government. But that's just a part of private ownership of clubs, how often does that actually happen?

How many quality players were lost last year?? about 10-ish?? and how many quality players have been 'discovered' this season??...about 5 or 6...you do the maths.

So we what? leave things the way they are? players continue to be poached by overseas clubs (and as word spreads this will happen more and more often). We should not be content with being a feeder league for the major leagues in europe.

Not when players leave on a bosman because the clubs aren't offering them enough and they can get ten times as much over in England or Spain. Don't be so short sighted.

In the case of centralised contracts to which i refer the players would be contracted to the FFA and farmed out to clubs. So yes they would.


10 quality players? Fred, Carle, possibly Hernandez and Carney (who actually left this season) the others would be who?


The present economic reality says we must be (for the time being).


So you agree with me then [sarcasm]. Case in point Burns will walk from Adelaide more than likely for nothing this year. Adelaide also let a contracted player in Owens leave the club last year only to sign with the Mariners, good business that. Carney? (So there may have been a clause there but it was a ridiculous one). Of course you are going to get players leaving on frees, you don't have to make it any easier by signing them to one and two year contracts. They are the clubs' only useful assets so sign them for longer (the really talented ones that is), if the Europeans want them that bad they can pay the going rate.

Hernandez hasnt left yet, its up to victory if they keep him for the second year of his loan, dunno about 10 but here are some:

Carle, Carney, Fred, Milton Rodrigues, Okon(yeah he retired but still needs to be replaced), Fernando Rech(again he retired, Leijer, Beauchamp(Season 1) and i guess you could sort of count Vidosic but he was replaced through Roars youth this year.

Thats 9 so far might think of some more later.

which is kind of the point - they failed to even make Euro 2008 with exactly that approach. In any case they both possess other skills - the coaches i am reffering to basically were trying to be positive. Both the squads you mention are quality anyway, regardless of their failing play.

Fosters comments do at times annoy the shit out of me , sometimes he makes sence , but the 1 thing that is a definite is sbs's sour grapes towards the A-leauge in particular and oz foot ball in general after they los the rights to matches , les murray's comments are soo funny the guy has to let go.

What a load of bollocks! How many teams in the last few world cups have got close to getting into the finals with a team of 'no names'?

There is alot to be said for talented players, but a team of talented players may not make a team.

Greece were given no chance in the last Euro's prior to the tournament (not sure what their starting odds were, but there was a bloke in the UK that got 150-1 on a 100K wager, so it was at least that) and guess what happened? They won it!

Was it the talent that took them past the might of Europe? No, a belief in themselves a never say die attitude and bloody hard work.

But for a dodgy penalty, Australia may have won the world cup, because the team that got that dodgy penalty DID!

Back to the original topic - Foster........... He does what he is paid to do, provide an opinion and because it is an opinion it neither right nor wrong and open to be questioned, just like everyones opinion on this site!

As I have said before, without Foster in that role and others like him, the 'topics' we discuss on here would be thinner on the ground.

Although I do think he is a PLANK!

You are truly an idiot. Nothing you ever post now will have any sort of relevance or creedence. You are part of the Australian Football fan that i despise.

Can you please tell me how many goal scoring chances Australia presented themselves with in that game. You cannot include Chipperfields shot, because he kicked it straight at Buffon's chest.

I challenge you to field a complete argument as to why we deserved to win that game and why Neil was not a dickhead for going down in the box. Watch the replay again. Mighty Lucas lifts his arms into his legs, knocking him down.

Douche

I did not say that I believed Australia deserved to win the game, I said Italy were lucky to have done so.

I totally agree, Neil should not have lunged in, infact Bresciano should never have let him get there in the first place. However, I disagree that Neil made contact with him, he made contact with Neil and new exactly what he was upto. If the same scenario had happened at the other end it would be the Italians that would have been screaming about how hard done by they were. Unfortunately, thats football and Australia has to add that side of the game to their repitoir.

My point is that flair and technical ability does not guarantee success. A couple of seasons ago Arsenal won the FA cup on penalties (which they clearly played for) because they were not in the same league as their opponents on the day (and no I am not a Man U fan) in that area and did not deserve to win based on the ninety minutes + 30 minutes extra time.

However, this is the beauty of a cup competition, it is based on the day and a lucky break could fall to either team.

He has a point though, since we seem to be talking about what could have happened.
Australia could have beat Italy in a penalty shootout. That was the only way though, but they could have done it. Dont know how we would have gone against the Frogs though!
Still, if my Aunty had balls she'd be my Uncle!

but then there would be disputes over who gets whom and the FFA can't really afford it.

You can't sell a player to a rival A-League club.

Between you and me, Stevie wasn't coaching england :-$
England aren't really known for their die hard attitude. The Germans showd that it can be done that way though.

There's more. Just their names escape me at the moment.

YEAH!! all we had to do was beat Germany and France and we that trophy was ours!! you keep telling yourself that mate. We weren't robbed. It was foolish of Neill to give Grosso somehting to trip over, especially since he knew the italian's reputation. And we should have killed the game off well before then, italy had 10 men FFS!! But this is all coming up to two years ago, get over it.

The difference being that we don't get paid for the privilage and don't drive a BMW.

What do you mean has become?

Who the fuck is that directed at??

Foster "becoming" a joke.

He became a joke back at Crystal Palace...it takes the news a little longer to filter through to some than others.

Has become a complete joke.

The technical level of NSL may have been better due to the slower pace of the game back then, thats what Fozz is craving for.He hates the EPL style.

I suggest before you make 'foster' like stupid remarks, you read the thread in full.



Whats the BMW got to do with it?

Afro, you should become a politician, you would be good at it, (only showing half the picture, the half that suits your needs) you would get paid for that and may even be given a BMW with a driver.

The same EPL he as head football analyst refuses to watch?

Just quick point on Erebus comment the crowds only go to see mariners because they are winning. They have won 1 out of 7 i think even though the last 3 mariners home games all topped each other for crowd numbers they were all losses. Punters and fans go for the excitement and enjoyment of the game which to some iws the technical excellence fossie aspire to. But for mine i think its a bit of sour grapes???

So you think Fossie aspires to technical excellence?

Why is that? You think Fossie or anybody else at SBS care about the future of the game in this country?

Is there a single time, just a single f****n time, that anyone at SBS in the days of the old NSL, expressed a view of what was wrong with the game then and how to fix it?

Do you understand the concept of, from being the exclusive "sokka station", thanks to the limited market the ethnic teams created, to being an outsider in the new football world of the A-League, really means to SBS people?

Just think: Would SBS be better off if "sokka" went back to the old NSL days, when they were the one and only football station or not? Has the A-League f****d them up completely or not?

Then remember this: Fossie works for SBS. He gets paid to be negative. Treat the spastic the way he deserves.

Read the thread in full?? Half the fucking posts in this thread are me!! :lol:

It was a sublte allusion to the fact taht he gets paid for his opinion, i'll be more blunt next time for your benefit.

I've been told that before, but I don't like public speaking so much.

Foster aspires to technical excellence?? When did that come to be? If that were the case then he would have been a far better player.

You mean side from "The National team is doing shit...we need a better coach."...ah...no.

You do seem a little paranoid there though ton.of.bricks.

No politician is good enough to deserve a BMW, they're all stuck with Caprices (or whatever Holden... *waits for correction*)

Caprice or Statesman, depends on the paycheck.

afroman do you always overule everyone else comments[-x

When it suits him. If the situation doesn't warrant a response beyond an arbitrary threshold for the growth of his ego, he won't respond. But, being the tight-arse he is, that threshold is apparently very low. So, yes.

only when there's a chance of getting a response like that one.

Fuck you marty. You're guilty of doing exactly the same thing with that comment you hypocrit :lol:

8-[:-"

Fossie spoke at a coaches group meeting in our area a few months back & was generally very well received - until he bagged out Arnie who I believe is seen as a former local. His passion & love for the game was obvious. His articles on youth development are worth reading.
He is filling an important role in the development of our game - "keeping the bastards honest" - he is opinionated, controversial & abrasive, isn't that what is needed for healthy debate? You can love him or hate but he is an important cog! It would be exceptionally boring without him.

Fossie has not even atained a junior coaching liscence. At least when Breeze speaks at the refs meetings he has the qualifications to do so. It is rather contradictory that he insults the league standard but does nothing to help it.

Guest wrote:

Fossie has not even atained a junior coaching liscence. At least when Breeze speaks at the refs meetings he has the qualifications to do so. It is rather contradictory that he insults the league standard but does nothing to help it.

Fossie couldn't even improve Nerds FC when he was looking after them. They went from bad to worse and forgot the little they knew about the game by the time he finished with them.

But there's hope. Fossie is having a go at the standard of play in the A-League because there are no many negatives to find in the A-League at the moment. The crowds are huge, the tv ratings are great, Fossie must be getting frustrated trying to find issues to whinge about.

Wow all this Fozzie bashing really makes me laugh. Everybody wants to talk about how negative he is and how much he whinges...

"This season won't be remembered for its quality of football but when crowds are up and good kids are coming through the ranks, there's always tremendous hope for the future."

Hmmmmm yes they sound exactly like the words of a man who hates the league and is conspiring to take Aussie football back to the days of the NSL so SBS can be the sole football network once again. #-o
Come on guys it would be reasonable to actually listen to someones opinion before you decide to rip into it.

Besides the only thing he 'whinges' about is that the technical quality of Aussie football isn't yet at a level where we can compete with the best on the world stage (I think most would agree with that at this stage)and that he is worried that we aren't yet going in the right direction. That is why he attacked Ange, Butcher, Arnie etc and judging from past comments made here most of us agree that those guys weren't up to scratch. I can understand why hes not everyone's cup of tea because sometimes he does get carried away but a lot of what he says is actually quite true if you really listen and don't just write him off as mad straight away.

He had no place to attack any of them. He is only following the SBS mould though I guess. Remember Venables coaching Australia. Yeah nearly took us to a WC bar for that cock sucking serial pest.... what do SBS do... campaign to have him fired. They just want the A-League to fail so they can get their biggest rating show back on.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but there is such a thing as oversaturation, especially with such an undermining and poorly thought through opinion. It's all very well to say "The a-league isn't good enough" but he's not doing anything to improve it, and when he DOES make a suggestion, it's always foolhardy, most probably because he doesn't have ANY coahces bardges and has no idea what hes' on about. There are people on this forum who have better knowledge and better developed opinions that Craig Foster has.

Fozzie insults other countries such as England, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, France and Hungarian acadamies but refuses to realise how these academies fit better into the Australian culture and will produce better players from this country. These players are also better team players as they come up as a unit. They learn team play and self sacrafice for the better of the team. The German, Italian, Dutch and English club sides work much better as a unit than the Spanish sides who rely on individual brilliance to carry a team (ie: Torres at Atletico Madrid or the Los Galacticos hoping that the star or in the case of Los Galacticos one of the many stars fires on the day). When was the last time you saw a Spanish team win a game on the back of a solid team performance?

The Brazilian development system puts children as young as 9 years old under immense pressure. These children literally fight for positions in the team. They go out their with the mentality that they must win and at all costs. They are brought up with a mentality that the harder they tackle the more likely they are to hamper the other players chances. This is why the disciplinary record of Brazilian players is far from perfect. Roberto Carlos was on the reciving end of more than his fair share of cards for example as were fellow fullback Emerson and Cafu. They all recieved higher than average carding.

Foster plays up the brazilians and latin americans as so brillaint, but what he fails to realise is that many of the players that we accept as "brilliant Brazilians" come from middle class ro affluent families. players like Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Liete, Ronaldo de Assís Moreira, Elano Blumer, Frederico Chaves Guedes, Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Júnior are all incredible players, but they haven't had to fight tooth and nail for a way out of the lifestyle they lead. We hear about the clubs like Sao Paulo and Atletico Paranaense that belch out quality players, but clubs like Figueirense can hardly afford the fascilities they have got.

These players after coming up through the academy become egotistical and self important. Rivaldo for a start caused many a player to leave the club he was at. He had to always be the star of the show, never the bridesmade, never taking a back seat, it was always about the necessity for him to prove his brilliance rather than that of the club and the brilliance of the team working as a whole and heaven help us if someone else put in a better performance.

Also when was the last time you saw Ronaldo chase down a pass that has gone askew. He has to have the ball at his feet or chest, not his head, not for him to run onto. It has to go to him, otherwise he is not going to chase it. Exactly the same with Romario. (has he gone bald yet?). On the other hand you have strikers like Klose, Luca Toni, van Persie, Johnson, Saha and now the upcomers like Giovinco and Rossi coming out of Italy, Caroll from England, Gomez from Germany and Babel, John and even Huntelaar for The Dutch. They all have a top class workrate and will chase every ball down.


Sanctioned by afroman.

Talk yourself up :roll:. Then again, you're just confirming what we all already suspect :P - oh the irony!

That I am better than Craig Foster \:d/

Hey, Guest, that was some article you posted there.

I agree with everything you had to say.

What some people seem to have missed is the fact that all the negative criticism targeted at the A-League and the FFA, comes from SBS and the spastics who work there.

Over the years SBS has opposed the changes that have turned the game around today. SBS was against switching the seasons to Summer and SBS fought tooth and nail to stop the old NSL clubs from amalgamating and changing their names and emblems away from ethnic symbolisms so they would be more acceptable to the wider community.

SBS had just about called David Hill a racist for trying to streamline the sport.

Wasn't it SBS and its "expert sokka commentators" who were telling everyone what a catastrophe it was for football to have all those "non-sokka" people involved with the sport as soon as the FFA and the A-League were formed?

Now "expert sokka commentators" like Craig Foster and Branco Culina are unfortunately fooling some people that they really care about the future of the game, when in fact all they care about is the future of their boss SBS. And some people believe them, which is sad.

But they are not fooling Frank Lowy and they are not fooling a lot of other users of this forum either.

Only, we were/are being sarcastic.

Right... Some people on here must believe George Bush blew up the twin towers and there was never a moon landing. FFS people, some of what is being said is just ridiculous. Honestly, Fozzie is saying the standard is poor so less people will go to the game, hence FOX drop it... and then SBS pick up the scraps of what would be largely an unmarketable game...

See while maybe eventually you could convince me this is happening (on second thoughts you couldnt} it doesn't change the fact they speak the TRUTH. The A-league is of a poor standard, many many people have said that, not just Les and Fozz, nor just SBS.

Your conspiracy theory should also have them bagging out the La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A, so they can gain those rights too.

And Elvis is still alive on an island with Harold Holt \:d/



Yeah because that is going to help the game progress in Australia. Can you please specify what is so unbelievable about what was posted? He may be saying that but if you hadn't noticed every year crowds have gotten bigger. Not to mention the fact that his paycheck comes from SBS, not the FFA...he's payed to espouse crap and attract attention to SBS, not the FFA. Don't kid yourself that he's trying to benefit the game. Craig Foster cares about one thing and one thing only...Craig Foster.




The A-League is of a rather high standard considering this is only its 3rd season, after evolving from a semi-professional league competing with various other sporting codes and having only just recently been built up from the charred remains of 50 year old ethnic wars that ruled the football landscape for years. Players like Djite, Zullo, Burns, Kruse and Milligan are all quality and we have seen with Leijer and Carney that the players can go and impress in Europe. Some drunken fools would argue that Carle should be on that list too.

We all know that those leagues would not lower there broadcasting standards to SBS's level. \:d/ \:d/

sanctioned by afroman.

LOL.

If people hate Foster so much, why do you talk about him? You're giving him the attention that he is after. :roll:

Well...we need someone to bag the shit out of, and failing Foster... all we're left with is you and that's way too easy.

oooooooooohhhh

Would you like some cream for that...?

I felt the need to sign in to concur personally with everythign being said by Guest.