A-League recruiting - thumbs up all round?

[brett]

I can't think of a team that will be weaker this season than last (maybe us on paper?) yet most seem stronger.. And I'm actually excited about the O/S recruits that have come here...Cristiano and van Dyk seem to have a bit of pedigree, and Zura at Newcastle in no way warrants marquee status but if you remove that tag, he seems an impressive enough signing. Charlie Miller sounds quality.

McKain is back, Thwaite is back, MacAllister is back, and these sorts of guys are what the A-League is all about.

If anything is missing it is a massive marquee name. But that is for the media, not for the football. I reckon the overall football quality will be higher and that makes me excited.

Each club is in a good place - scum have the coach and the squad to perform again, Melbourne and Adelaide have great strength and good imports, Sydney can't suck that bad with their signings (surely), we have a competitive squad as always, Wellington have recruited brilliantly, Queensland are headed in the right direction and have only lost caveman from last year. Perth will suck again.

This season will be extremely close across 7 clubs.

 

[bulldogmariner]

How are we weaker than last year. We lost 2 players to retirement and brought in quality replacements with Elrich and Bojic. Aloi$i is injury prone and MacAllister will fit into the league and score goals. Adrian is the creative player we missed last year. We also get back Ossie, NIk and Heff who missed a large part of the season are back all rated as quality in our league.

Depth is the big issue with the salary cap and teams who have a well paid squad will be high on the ladder but if they get injuries they will struggle. Interested to see Adelaide with all these Brazilians they will be strong.
Melbourne has brought well when you consider Tommy P will be bench warming behind the 2 Costa Ricans.
Agree with Perth they will finish last unless Trindad is as good as they think he is and he could make a huge impact on the league.
Wellington will be stronger.

I predict coming into last round we wont know the final 4 or any positions in the 4.

 

[dibo]

I haven't followed the other clubs that closely but while we've got bugger all to be *excited* about, I'm not sure that I'd be worried either. We've probably got the 'flattest' squad in the league - may not have a bunch of superstars but we're refreshingly short of duds. Not a single player looks untested or understrength.

That said, winning the league again this year would be due more to grinding out 21 good weeks than destroying teams through the year. Last year we won the league having won less than half our matches and having lost almost that many.

While I don't think that would be likely to happen again, I'd still be surprised if the league is much less competitive than last year. you may find that 36 points or so may still be enough to win it through the trading of results here and there, and that's just 12 wins.

With the recruiting done across the board it seems that we'll probably have a bunch of clubs trading results, especially when clubs seem to do better against some teams than others.

We basically sealed the league by taking 9 points from Wellington and 7 from Perth. We took 6 from Adelaide, but only 4 from Melbourne and 3 from Sydney, Queensland and Newcastle. Other teams have different balances of bogey sides and free lunches. All the results go round in a wheel...

Should be a good season!

 

[Jorome Alexander Bennett]

I really like our team this season.
Caceres and Elrich need only be alright and we'll put plenty in the back of the net.
Big Dyl the target. Sash sniffin'. Mrdja bangin' them away.
Maybe I'm overestimating the team, but I'm excited by what we are looking like this season.

The optimistic fans of almost every other team will feel the same. At this stage, before having seen much of the players, most teams will garner warm fuzzy feelings from their fans due to the across the board recruitment. Thumbs up.

But one area in which the recruitment gets a thumb down from me is Asian recruitment. Does a thumb down in this area matter?
Well, from my experience in China I believe we would only need 2 Chinese internationals and 3 alright Chineses lads across the league, coupled with continued participation in ACL to have the A-league highlights definetely played on chinese news and maybe TV rights bought.
Highlights of PSV's league games were shown on the news in China when they had a player, Sun Xiang come off the bench for usually only something like 4 minutes.

They play the Bundesliga match of the week on CCTV5. There isn't a league they have less interest in in the world. But they like good football. We have a less reknowned product than the German top flight, but throw in Chinese names and the Chinese will watch.

And it would not be a comprimise of player quality to have these lads in teams, as we've all seen in the Champions League, they can play.

They are good players and would pull huge interest from China, needless to say, a huge market.

The least we should do is have a Cup Winner's Cup match between the two leagues. They'll televise it in China.

On this issue I am either biased or more informed. I just feel that we are missing an easy oppurtunity.

 

[marinermick]

Asian recruitment is way too expensive and problematic. There are at least five leagues in Asia where a player can earn more money than the A-League and there is little incentive to come to Australia. A Chinese international would easily be earning half a million a year without the money from endorsements which would be huge in China.

You have to be lucky and jag a Song who is taking a massive paycut to join a more physical league in prepardness for a stint in Europe.

 

[midfielder]

Brett

I agree all teams look stronger. I think it could come down to the last couple of rounds.

Luck and Ref's calls are going to play a big part in finals make up. It will be close, The Choppers / Tards / Nix have recurited the best I think. But all teams are stronger.

 

[marinersman]

Call me cynical but I'll wait for at least a quarter of the season before I pass comment on any of the new foreigners. Every year they are talked up and there hasn't been may good ones in the first three seasons.

Time will be the best judge.

 

[brett]

How are we weaker than last year.

I will explain that.

Vidmar is a big loss despite his advancing years in our young backline. And I think between Dyl, Matty and Nik we should be able to cover Aloisi's and Kwassy's goals but losing Tommy is a third big loss on paper that we haven't really replaced (wingers are one thing but a genuine playmaker is another).

I do feel we are at least as strong this year though because players like Jedi and Boogs have developed another year, strengthening the core of what we already had. The question will be whether other teams accelerate past us.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Tommy is the player who we will miss most, we need that spark of genius to change a game and TBH, I cant see who else in our squad can do what he did.

Could be worse, but the Jests new signing looks absolutely terrible. Another Con masterstroke.

That is balanced by the fact that Song is a class act though