Squad Development 2017/18

[beatsurrender]

12 minutes ago, mack said:

So far our squad is full of middling, mediocre and some just plain awful (Hamill, Sotirio) players. Only Santalab and maybe Aspro & Vedran are above-average for the league. 

If Borda sticks around saying "you gave me a 2 year deal, I'm staying" then we're going to be mid-table again unless we sign Messi & Ronaldo.

Nah,  2 top quality players (ie Broich, Berisha, Ninko, Nico type) and you go from middling to a top side in this league.  As for Borda he will be gone, they will do a deal. Depending how much they have to pay may influence how much they are prepared to splash on aforementioned quality players though

Edited May 16, 2017 by beatsurrender

[mack]

2 top quality players

Do you trust Popa to find them, or Lederer to pay for them?

[beatsurrender]

8 minutes ago, mack said:

 

 

Do you trust Popa to find them, or Lederer to pay for them?

Neither tbh. But one lives in hope.

[DeeDee]

Im happy with those 3 signings. 

-risdon is a slight improvement as much as we love Neville.

- bonevacia adds a new different and exciting dynamic to the squad

- thwaite brings experience and gives us less of a heart attack when called upon instead of hammil and borda.

[Erebus]

We already had Nico and we were in the lower half of the table.

Antonis we should be doing everything we can to get him.

Nico imo is expendable. Better players out there that can dominate the league.

[Upthehill]

4 hours ago, Burgerman said:

The Spaniard is contracted for another season but is likely to be offered a deal to terminate his contract, following the eight players released last week.

This is the best off season news we've ever had.

When you give away 3 penalties in 2 starts, you're going to get your **** pushed in real quick.

Re Nico, I'm more than happy not to have him back. He had fast footwork that got him out of trouble he should never have been in in the first place. I'd be happier to have a Broich-esq player that puts balls in the right area early rather than someone that runs into defenders, wriggles away then gets trapped again. 

[GD07]

14 minutes ago, Erebus said:

We already had Nico and we were in the lower half of the table.

Antonis we should be doing everything we can to get him.

Nico imo is expendable. Better players out there that can dominate the league.

Ideally we'd find a way to keep both, but Antonis is the more vital signing (even if it's a season long loan deal). 

[Stokz]

Where does Roly play at 10 or 8?

[Upthehill]

8 minutes ago, Stokz said:

Where does Roly play at 10 or 8?

He's been playing deep at WPX but he's a natural 10

[Sithslayer1991]

Read somewhere Baccus was weighing up an offer offer for an overseas club which is why he hasn't re-signed yet http://www.blacktownsun.com.au/story/4665882/wanderers-sign-experienced-trio/

[Guest Humphrey]

5 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Read somewhere Baccus was weighing up an offer offer for an overseas club which is why he hasn't re-signed yet http://www.blacktownsun.com.au/story/4665882/wanderers-sign-experienced-trio/

Baccus. Best player the wanderers have seen bar Ono and Dino. I don't know how I'll live on without him in a wsw jersey next season.

[beatsurrender]

8 minutes ago, Guest Humphrey said:

Baccus. Best player the wanderers have seen bar Ono and Dino. I don't know how I'll live on without him in a wsw jersey next season.

Is that you Kearyn??

 

[beatsurrender]

.

Actually Popa might try the back 5 trend. Cornthwaite, Thwaites and Asprothwaite, with Clisby and Risdon bombing on...?

 

Mid three of Baccus, Antonis and Roly (playing the Mitch roll) and then 2 marquee/visa up front with Santa as an impact player

Edited May 16, 2017 by beatsurrender

[Alexander]

 

[StringerBellend]

Happy with those three as a start all upgrades on what we had 

assuming Borda goes sill three foriegn spots to fill and 2 marquee places

risodon will make a huge difference we haven't had a right back who can cross since Polenz

still need some sexual footballers to come in though 

Edited May 16, 2017 by StringerBellend

[WanderingToqui]

I'm liking our new players so far.

It's just a pity we aren't going to be in the ACL.

Bonevacia will lift his game with us. He's been wanting to get out of the Phoenix for a while. Popa will make him lift.

Thwaite is good back up to an already decent backline. 

Risdon will lift his game being a world cup year.

I think we're on the right path so far.

 

[Taurus]

On 5/8/2017 at 5:43 PM, mack said:

Expiring End 2016/17
Kearyn Baccus
 
Expiring End 2017/18
Aritz Borda (Foreign)
Brendon Santalab
Brendan Hamill 
Jack Clisby
Jacob Melling
Jackson Bandiera (U21 Dev Contract)
Jerrad Tyson
Jonathan Aspropotamitis
Jumpei Kusukami (Foreign)
Michael Thwaite
Robbie Cornthwaite
Steven Lustica
Vedran Janjetovic

Expiring End 2018/19
Keanu Baccus (U21 Dev Contract)
Lachlan Scott (U21)
Jaushua Sotirio
Josh Risdon
Roly Bonevacia (Foreign)

Special Player Limitations (As part of overall squad cap)
3 of 5 Foreign Players -  2 Available
2 of 2 Marquee Position (Wage not included in Salary Cap) - 2 Available

Tim Cahill Guest Player (basically a 3rd marquee spot if your name is Tim Cahill)
0 of 1 Tim Cahill Guest Player - 1 available.
 
A-League squad comprised of 23 First Team players (3 of which must be U21), and 3 U21 Youth Development Contracts (this may be 6? now)
16 of 20 First Team Contracts - 4 Available
1 of 3 First Team U21 Contracts - 2  Available
2 of 3 U21 Development Youth Contracts - 2 Available
 
Total
19 of 26 Players - 7 Available

Me thinks it's best to ignore the additional 3 - 6 u21 development / scholarship contracted players, which can be signed to deals totaling approx. 200k outside the cap, when attempting to keep track of our squad. 

The way I see it, we have 16 of 23 senior players under contract for 17/18, which doesn't include Kearyn Baccus. 

[mack]

I was thinking about splitting the squad into full squad members and then all the youth/U21 players. Keep it simple.

[magicwand]

4 hours ago, Upthehill said:

When you give away 3 penalties in 2 starts, you're going to get your **** pushed in real quick.

Re Nico, I'm more than happy not to have him back. He had fast footwork that got him out of trouble he should never have been in in the first place. I'd be happier to have a Broich-esq player that puts balls in the right area early rather than someone that runs into defenders, wriggles away then gets trapped again. 

I don't understand the ambivalence bordering on hostility, towards Nico. Creatively he's the best we've ever had, a joy to watch, and that's including Ono. Surrounded by mediocrity and sometimes downright rubbish he was the one player that made us look like a half decent football team. If he'd managed to snag a few more goals he'd probably have been given god status. I think this will be a case of only really missing him when he's gone. For the money we're paying I'll be surprised if we get a replacement anywhere near his class. 

[StringerBellend]

20 minutes ago, magicwand said:

I don't understand the ambivalence bordering on hostility, towards Nico. Creatively he's the best we've ever had, a joy to watch, and that's including Ono. Surrounded by mediocrity and sometimes downright rubbish he was the one player that made us look like a half decent football team. If he'd managed to snag a few more goals he'd probably have been given god status. I think this will be a case of only really missing him when he's gone. For the money we're paying I'll be surprised if we get a replacement anywhere near his class. 

He was good, I want him back. But he was nowhere near the class Ono was 

Ono was always 2 steps ahead of everyone else on the field, he knew exactly what had to happen next 

[ZachMercer]

22 minutes ago, magicwand said:

I don't understand the ambivalence bordering on hostility, towards Nico. Creatively he's the best we've ever had, a joy to watch, and that's including Ono. Surrounded by mediocrity and sometimes downright rubbish he was the one player that made us look like a half decent football team. If he'd managed to snag a few more goals he'd probably have been given god status. I think this will be a case of only really missing him when he's gone. For the money we're paying I'll be surprised if we get a replacement anywhere near his class. 

Here, here.

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, StringerBellend said:

He was good, I want him back. But he was nowhere near the class Ono was 

Ono was always 2 steps ahead of everyone else on the field, he knew exactly what had to happen next 

 

Nico was good, but went missing towards the back end of the season when we really needed him to step up and take it to another level. Would like to keep Nico and see him in a better balanced side. Mitch was so off his game last season that often Nico was doing the hard creativity yards alone and Jumpie didn't help out much up there.

Ono was a class above, remains the best player WSW have ever had and one of the top 5 HAL players ever.

[luisenrique]

Happy with these signings...at this stage we will have, at most, 2 players in the starting XI next year who haven't played in the a-league before. We've never had anything close to such domestic experience across the board before (maybe season 2?).

Keeping Baccus is a must, although obviously if he gets a decent overseas opportunity then there's not much we can do.

Agree with most of what has been said about Nico. Of course he wasn't perfect, but you're not going to get a perfect player in this league. With the dross around him he really stood out, and you only have to watch the games we played without him to see what a difference he made. His finishing and fitness towards the end of the season weren't great, but I think he did more than enough to earn another season. The chances of finding a marquee overseas that's going to be better than him are minimal.

[ManfredSchaefer]

Some thoughts on new signings/re-signings...

Insert Borda out Meme/Gif

Re-signing Hammill doesn't bother me...he's a squaddie who will probably only get game time in dead end away games or if if no one else is available.

Nice to see Baccus Junior get a full contract

Insert Borda out Meme/Gif

Pretty happy with Bonavacia coming into the squad...always rated him since his debut for the Nux, and whilst his output was arguably down for many games this season he has shown in his efforts against us what he is capable of. Can still recall how he troubled us in that win at Penrith in the season from hell 14/15, and that friendly at Wanderland pre-215/16 he was in stunning form.

Insert Borda out Meme/Gif

Risdon will be a decent swap for Scotty Nev. Hopefully he is knows how to cross better than SN. 

Insert Borda out Meme/Gif

As for Thwaite...nope, not a fan. Frankly think he is a bit of a dud, and his history of dropping the dacks puts him on the same level of esteem as David Carney (without the GF winner's credentials).

Oh, and by the way...

Insert Borda out Meme/Gif

 

[Roycarlton2012]

Very happy with risdon roly and thwaite .

we need bridgey antonis and a marque striker and right winger/attacker 

I think we will have a big year this season with no ACL and 19/27 games being in nsw 13 home games and 2 at newy 2 at ccm 2 at SFC away so we have hardly any travel issues 

[lloydy136]

would like to see Nico without nichols - one of our problems all season was that they both wanted the same space on the field and they never really worked out how to read each other's runs. its not going to happen though I don't think because as I have said previously - anyone who thinks the club will pay an actual transfer fee for anyone needs to cut their meth intake.

sadly I am also resigned to the fact that Antonis isn't coming back

thwaite is a great pickup imo - solid, reliable, knows the league and he is NOT borda.

speaking of him - if borda plays another minute in a competitive match for our club - then I am on the pitch.

i will wait and see with roly - hopefully popa can smack the laziness out of him because I wasn't impressed with his attitude for the nix this season.

will be sad to see baccus go if that is what happens - he was the big positive this season and as a football fan there is nothing better than seeing one of your own come good. if he goes o/s then so be it but if he ends up on another a-league team then its pitchfork time. perhaps some sort of message to the club is what we need - we should all drive to the eastern suburbs and park on some wanker's front lawn to show our solidarity with kearyn.

The next couple of signings will tell us whether the talk of 3 at the back is legitimate - if we don't sign a winger then we know that is what we are looking at.

[theguyyouwishyouwere]

lol spiranovic was better than all non-royal players we've had.

 

#KingBridge

[btron3000]

2 hours ago, lloydy136 said:

will be sad to see baccus go if that is what happens - he was the big positive this season and as a football fan there is nothing better than seeing one of your own come good. if he goes o/s then so be it but if he ends up on another a-league team then its pitchfork time.

I think the Baccus situation is an interesting one and highlights the difficulty of building a squad in the A-league, particularly building with our own.

Say the club is hearing good sounds out of PAOK about us getting Antonis. Then it is not as important to keep Baccus because we might use the second central midfield spot on a foreigner. If we were to get a quality foreigner alongside Terry we would dom.in.nate.

But if Antonis is unlikely, then you have a situation where holding on to Baccus is more important, otherwise you are trying to find a quality Aussie midfielder or bringing in two foreigners who have to adjust together, take away a visa spot in the attacking third etc.

And this is under the assumption that he wants to stay! If he is looking elsewhere, he might go anyway. At the least it might drive his price up, which might lead WSW to think there is better value under the cap in someone else. It's possible even that another A-league team might have more cap space and decide he is worth the extra $$.

If you're in a league with no cap and no squad limits - and he wants to stay - you can just sign him, and then if you keep Antonis and bring in a foreigner you don't have to worry about their wages or squad size (outside of the owner's desire to spend of course). Course, he might not want to sit on the bench, but that's ok because you can farm him out later if that's the case.

The more I think about it, the more the cap has to dramatically change or be scrapped altogether.

[Upthehill]

11 hours ago, magicwand said:

I don't understand the ambivalence bordering on hostility, towards Nico. Creatively he's the best we've ever had, a joy to watch, and that's including Ono. Surrounded by mediocrity and sometimes downright rubbish he was the one player that made us look like a half decent football team. If he'd managed to snag a few more goals he'd probably have been given god status. I think this will be a case of only really missing him when he's gone. For the money we're paying I'll be surprised if we get a replacement anywhere near his class. 

No hostility from me, I think he is a skilful athlete. I just got think his critical decision making is slow. Maybe his not suited to possession style football (not many are). If he comes back I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong

[Stokz]

With Nico, he was being played out of position.

For me he would of been much more effective in the CAM role with two fast and skillful wingers (not sotirio) around him.