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pjennings

Well-Known Member
Mixed how I feel about this. They are a great club. Plays Champoins league. And gets to win a trophy every year :confused: but I really wanted to see him tested in the EPL and see how far his star could rise.

Now at 25, his best years are committed to Celtic unless someone comes knocking and is willing to pay a big sum when he’s say 28,

I see this as a win-win for him and the club. Celtic has been good for him and have allowed him to rebuild his body. If he has a stellar World Cup or another good year at Celtic people will still want him. This contract gives him long term security given that a footballer is always one tackle away from retirement. If he stays for another 5 years he will be a Celtic legend and if Celtic sell him they will get a fair price.
 

nebakke

Well-Known Member
Mixed how I feel about this. They are a great club. Plays Champoins league. And gets to win a trophy every year :confused: but I really wanted to see him tested in the EPL and see how far his star could rise.

Now at 25, his best years are committed to Celtic unless someone comes knocking and is willing to pay a big sum when he’s say 28,

I don't really disagree but - and I'm about to show my age AND other nationality again ;) -
Michael Laudrup spent 7 years in La Liga, first for Barça, then for Real, his brother Brian sort of shocked everyone by choosing to stay at Rangers for a number of years turning down offers from both Barça and Ajax to stay... He was still an exceptional footballer, definitely one of the best of his time and according to Pelé on his list of the best players of all time... Coincidentally that's him kissing the European Championship trophy in 1992 in my avatar, if anyone was in doubt ;)
Point is - it'd be really nice to see Tommy develop somewhere else, the Scottish league isn't what it was with Rangers stuck in a world of mediocrity and I think Brian Laudrup was a significantly better and more developed player when he got there as well... But I also think that while competition is clearly important, for some players, there's a lot to be said for the comfort of understanding your surrounding environment and having a rapport. So it's no disaster in my mind... Not to mention that this doesn't stop Rogic from going anywhere, it just means that wherever he goes, someone's going to need to pay for him...
 

Big Al

Well-Known Member
You also have to remember they play 38
Games in the League season + cups
(Wiki stats no unreliable)
Season - games in the league - cup - L cup - continental
1st 3 seasons - 11 + 0 + 1 + 3 = 15 games
16 - 30 + 2 + 2 + 5 = 39 games
17 - 22 + 2 + 4 + 9 = 37 games
18 - 21 + 2 + 3 + 13 = 39 games
So when he misses games he misses a chunk

Incl cup and Europe he is totaling the seasons games. He is at least clocking consistently in around the same amount of games per season which is a huge achievement after those 1st 3yrs.

Still needs to be a starter and do well in the Champions League to go further IMO
 

Forum Phoenix

Well-Known Member
I don't really disagree but - and I'm about to show my age AND other nationality again ;) -
Michael Laudrup spent 7 years in La Liga, first for Barça, then for Real, his brother Brian sort of shocked everyone by choosing to stay at Rangers for a number of years turning down offers from both Barça and Ajax to stay... He was still an exceptional footballer, definitely one of the best of his time and according to Pelé on his list of the best players of all time... Coincidentally that's him kissing the European Championship trophy in 1992 in my avatar, if anyone was in doubt ;)
Point is - it'd be really nice to see Tommy develop somewhere else, the Scottish league isn't what it was with Rangers stuck in a world of mediocrity and I think Brian Laudrup was a significantly better and more developed player when he got there as well... But I also think that while competition is clearly important, for some players, there's a lot to be said for the comfort of understanding your surrounding environment and having a rapport. So it's no disaster in my mind... Not to mention that this doesn't stop Rogic from going anywhere, it just means that wherever he goes, someone's going to need to pay for him...

Yeah agree. Great post. A lot to be said for just playing week in week out at a good level. I think Cahills rise through Millwall was a great example.
 
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pjennings

Well-Known Member
Trent Sainsbury: Australia defender who fought back after freak sprinkler injury

The centre-back travels to Russia two and a half years after fracturing his kneecap on a sprinkler during his debut for Dutch side PEC Zwolle

John Davidson


Trent Sainsbury salutes the crowd after the play-off against Honduras in Sydney in November last year.
At the start of 2014 Trent Sainsbury had the world at his feet. After emerging in the A-League with Central Coast Mariners and winning his first trophy in the grand final, he secured a high-profile transfer to Europe. At 22, he was one of Australia’s best young players.

A change in coach with the national team at the end of 2013 meant a chance of going to the World Cup. With the veteran captain Lucas Neill on his way out, Ange Postecoglou was on the hunt for a centre-back to partner Matt Spiranovic. Young, talented, skilful and able to play out from the back, Sainsbury fitted the bill. It was looking good for the kid from Thornlie, Perth.

But often in football, like in life, fate intervenes. Sainsbury’s debut for the Dutch club PEC Zwolle turned into a horror movie. In his first Eredivisie appearance he fell and collided with a sprinkler that had somehow been left on the pitch. The freak accident fractured his kneecap and spelled the end of his World Cup dream.

Sainsbury later admitted it took him a while to get over that most bizarre of injuries. “It was almost like a bad break-up,” he said in 2016. “You don’t expect that sort of thing to happen on a professional football pitch in Europe in one of the bigger leagues. It’s just crazy.”


With Sainsbury sidelined, Postecoglou’s revamped Socceroos went to Brazil and were beaten in all three group games. They were bold and brave, but fragility at the back was costly and they shipped nine goals, scoring only three. A quick exit ensued. After five months out Sainsbury was back on the park that year and back in the Blauwvingers’ starting XI.

Postecoglou immediately called him up and made him a regular part of his squad. It was a move that paid off handsomely – Sainsbury started all six games as Australia won the 2015 Asian Cup on home soil. His partnership with Spiranovic was crucial as the Socceroos claimed their first major trophy. Suddenly all of Asia was aware of this gangly defender with the jet black hair. Sainsbury won the man of the match award in the final and was selected in the AFC’s team of the tournament, having also played a part in three clean sheets and scored in the semi-final against the United Arab Emirates.

Fast forward just over three years and the defender, 26, is close to his World Cup dream finally coming true. The Dutchman Bert van Marwijk is in charge after a tumultuous year for Australia, in which Postecoglou controversially walked out and the team qualifed for Russia by the skin of their teeth after navigating two tricky play-offs. The former Netherlands coach has said how vital Sainsbury will be to his team. With Spiranovic in the international wildness, he is near irreplaceable.



Trent Sainsbury in training in Turkey at the end of May.
The World Cup will be just rewards for a player who has spent more than a decade battling the hard way to break through. At 15 he moved out of home to relocate 3,718 kilometres to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. At 17 he was on the move again, this time 350 kilometres to the Central Coast. At 21 it was to the Netherlands and at 23 to China. Loans to Italy, with Internazionale, and now to Switzerland, with Grasshoppers, have followed. Sainsbury is not your typical footballer but a laconic operator who is more of a throwback to Australian sporting figures of old.
“He’s a bit of a joker and just a real laid-back kind of guy,” his former team-mate Daniel McBreen says. “He’s a consummate professional but he always like to have a laugh or a joke. He wants to get the best out of himself but he also likes to have a laugh along the way as well.”

Practical joker, fun-lover, determined character. Sainsbury might enjoy life to its fullest off the pitch but he means business on it. His versatility has been evident in Switzerland with classy performances in defensive midfield. But his killer focus was most evident last year when his displays helped Australia book their place at the World Cup. He played in all but one of the Socceroos’ matches last year as they navigated through the qualifying minefield.

He was the key to Postecoglou’s much-maligned back three, even while suffering from osteitis pubis – without him the Australia players might be watching their first World Cup on TV since 2002. If the Soccereoos are to have any chance of emulating “the Golden Generation” and getting to the round of 16, a lot will depend on the highly rated centre-back.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-who-fought-back-after-freak-sprinkler-injury
 

marinermick

Well-Known Member
Sains apparently has offers out the wazoo after his performance against France. Easily has been the most undervalued player in the NT.

Probably true but his agent is Tony Rallis, so reports of six clubs showing interest straight after the France game could be wildly exaggerated. Good way of generating interest and rising Sainsbury's stock.

Outstanding agent but have to take EVERYTHING he says with a grain of salt.
 

Insertnamehere

Well-Known Member
Probably true but his agent is Tony Rallis, so reports of six clubs showing interest straight after the France game could be wildly exaggerated. Good way of generating interest and rising Sainsbury's stock.

Outstanding agent but have to take EVERYTHING he says with a grain of salt.
May be the case but you certainly must admit aside from setting up his family, sains career has not got him to a club he should be at yet. I don't count his time in Italy.
 

nebakke

Well-Known Member
Probably true but his agent is Tony Rallis, so reports of six clubs showing interest straight after the France game could be wildly exaggerated. Good way of generating interest and rising Sainsbury's stock.

Outstanding agent but have to take EVERYTHING he says with a grain of salt.

I'm just impressed he made it through a sentence without ranting about the - admittedly - crappy state of the FFA and the treatment of the poor NPL clubs.
 

nebakke

Well-Known Member
May be the case but you certainly must admit aside from setting up his family, sains career has not got him to a club he should be at yet. I don't count his time in Italy.

Tbf - I think his ankle injury had a lot to do with that as well... He wasn't exactly inundated with offers when he was cut loose from Zwolle and he seems to have improved plenty in spite of where his contract is held, so I'm not sure that his progress has been as big of an issue as people think.
 

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