Squad Development 2017/18 Part 2

[Zelinsky]

11 hours ago, EmMac said:

So the transition to Western Adelaide Wanderers is almost complete. Colloquially known as WAW. You just wait, we'll be all like, 'yeah, WAW bruv, WAW.

Once upon a time we had Popovic, Milicic, Foxe, Covic, Bridgey, Santa, Cole, Beauchamp, D'Appuzo, Juric, Haliti, Mooy, Gibbs, Elrich, Perkatis, Trifiro, Golec giving the WSW a face, an identity. WSW meant something.

Maybe that's the "bold plan for the club" Lederer was talking about in November: turning WSW into the Western Sydney Reds and Blacks, or Western Sydney United.

Next stop Elrich, Elsey, Djite, contract extension for Carrasco? I hope we'll still know who we are going to sing for next season. 

But yes, we signed a couple of young and promising HAL bench players. 

 

 

 

[Zelinsky]

13 hours ago, GunnerWanderer said:

this to means says that gombau is here to stay FCB 

It looks that way, doesn't it? If so we'd have to hope that, after 11 month pre season, Team Gombau will play the football he was talking about in November. 

[Prydzopolis]

On 14/03/2018 at 3:14 PM, Stokz said:

Which is fine.

Give him a year contract extension, and evaluate again at the end of season.

If he does get injured, we bring an injury replacement.

Agree with the above, but if he is injured we have two players ready to step up

On 14/03/2018 at 10:45 PM, Unlimited said:

Scott and Majok are there somewhere 

they can be the striker if needed - not sure how they've been progressing recently tho

 

[SomeGuy1977]

16 hours ago, EmMac said:

So the transition to Western Adelaide Wanderers is almost complete. Colloquially known as WAW. You just wait, we'll be all like, 'yeah, WAW bruv, WAW.

C'mon, don't be such a WAW-ser about it

(not my best effort, but it's Friday arvo and I'm desperate to kill the time before I can GTFO)

[Edinburgh]

11 minutes ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

C'mon, don't be such a WAW-ser about it

(not my best effort, but it's Friday arvo and I'm desperate to kill the time before I can GTFO)

Poet's day!

[mack]

What was Sydney FC's "identity" last year when they won the Grand Final? They only had 3 players born in Sydney in their starting lineup. In our last grand final we only had 2 players born in Sydney. The player who has the most passion for the club was born in Wollongong and used to play for Sydney FC. How many players born in Munich play for Bayern? I'm sure Manchester City's first team is packed with players born in Manchester as well.

I suppose it's easier to complain about an esoteric "identity" (here I was thinking Western Sydney was a place people could come and be welcomed no matter where they came from) than admit that Gombau has picked up some good players.

Popa won us the Premiership with offcuts from other clubs mixed with some good foreign players.

[hawks2767]

Obviously a team made up of locals would mean so much more.

We need to find room for Ahmad Elrich and Kerem Bulut.

[Zelinsky]

9 minutes ago, mack said:

What was Sydney FC's "identity" last year when they won the Grand Final? They only had 3 players born in Sydney in their starting lineup. In our last grand final we only had 2 players born in Sydney. The player who has the most passion for the club was born in Wollongong and used to play for Sydney FC. How many players born in Munich play for Bayern? I'm sure Manchester City's first team is packed with players born in Manchester as well.

I suppose it's easier to complain about an esoteric "identity" (here I was thinking Western Sydney was a place people could come and be welcomed no matter where they came from) than admit that Gombau has picked up some good players.

Popa won us the Premiership with offcuts from other clubs mixed with some good foreign players.

Mack,

With all due respect: I really don't need a lecture from you about the kind of people the West of Sydney welcomes, as I am one of them. That's not the point that I was trying to make, and you know it. I take offense to that.

I was drawn to the WSW because the people there, both on and off the pitch, represented the West. That's why I never bothered with the Smurfs. Maybe I am the odd one out who thinks along those lines: I would like to see the West being put back into the club. One of the complaints about last year's squad was that they don't "get us". We have to wait and see how Mr We-will-win-the-derby and a bunch of ex Reds players shape up in that regard.

Bayern traditionally, has homegrown players in their team, or at least players who have come through their youth works. Alaba, Mueller, Schweinsteiger, Lahm won the triple for their club in 2013, Hummels and Wagner are now back. That Bayern don't have a team consisting of players only from Munich comes with the territory when a club wants to play top European football. But lets not forget that the imports Ribery, Robben, Martinez, Thiago, Rafinha as well as Boating and Neuer have been at the club for years, and embody the Bayern spirit. I am from Bavaria, I identify with Bayern for that reason, and really don't give a toss what Man City or the Smurfs are doing when it comes to identity.

I referred to our two latest signings as "a couple of young and promising HAL bench players", not sure what I am not admitting there other that they are not Westies. 

Popa won the Premiership and ACL mainly with Westies and imports, off cuts or not, don't your agree? And Gombau so far has been playing mostly crap ball with the second most expensive squad in the HAL. But again, maybe I am just an odd ball for whom these kind of things matter.

 

[DeeDee]

Very happy with these 2 signings.

- Kamau, better then anyone else we have on the wings bar Ikon.

- Tongiyk, replaces aspro. Better IMO and brings physicality.

 

Expiring End 2017/18
Abraham Majok (U21) - Keep or replace from within with Roberts
Alvaro Cejudo (Foreign, Marquee) - Adios, needs serial upgrading
Brendon Santalab - 1 more season please
Brendan Hamill - hmmmmmm those 2 goals have fogged up my goggles
Chris Ikonomidis - Another loan spell would benefit both parties
Jack Clisby - Yeah Nah. Later mate or take a paycut
Jerrad Tyson - Release, but hire him as fulltime fan consultant to rekindle the absolute disconnect atm.
John Roberts (U21) - Keep
Jonathan Aspropotamitis - CYA
Kosta Grozos (U21) - Keep
Marcelo Carrusca - hmmm, started with a bang, but old legs getting heavier? Can do better unless hes an aussie on the cheap.
Michael Thwaite - Great bloke but seriously needs upgrading
Nicholas Suman (U21) - Keep
Raul Llorente (Foreign) - Keep or upgrade but no gambles. So probs just keep.
Steven Lustica - Byebye
Vedran Janjetovic - Keep

[DeeDee]

And sorry but where the hell is Chris Herd?? Is he injured or awol again? Or getting some gombau treatment? Its ridic!

[mack]

8 hours ago, theguyyouwishyouwere said:

what's even the point of the youth squad and academy?

To provide a handful of "3rd & 4th choice" backups to the main squad, and hopefully find 1 player a season good enough to be an A-League first team squad player. So far we've got Aspro, Sotirio, Keanu Baccus, Lachlan Scott. It's not going to be much more than 1 or 2 players a year who come from the youth team that sticks around past their 21st birthday.

[Sithslayer1991]

Kamau keeps Sotirio away from the starting line up so of course I'm happy as I do rate Kamau as being better than Sotirio.

Tongyik last season I really rated his performances and refreshes our ageing defence hopefully comes good and gives Aspro when he comes back some competition.  

Hopefully both  signings come good next season.

[lloydy136]

The bigger question to me is the club placing this much faith in gumby based off absolutely nothing.

We have kicked the crap out of a couple of garbage teams but had our pants pulled down by anyone half decent.

So now we are bringing in a whole bunch of 'his guys'. So what happens when we continue along this same path and after 5 games we are 8th and have copped another couple of hammerings off esfc and mv?

Gombau will be gone and we will be stuck with a bunch of his guys who don't fit into the system of whoever the next guy is and it will be another lost season.

He has shown nothing to deserve the faith shown in  him.

[DeeDee]

2 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Kamau keeps Sotirio away from the starting line up so of course I'm happy as I do rate Kamau as being better than Sotirio.

Tongyik last season I really rated his performances and refreshes our ageing defence hopefully comes good and gives Aspro when he comes back some competition.  

Hopefully both  signings come good next season.

Doubt Aspro gets kept on man, but if he does it has to be on minimum wage stuff.

Our defence and midfield (defensive wise) need serious upgrading. In terms of CB, we go off the succesfull Smurf approach and have 2-3 that we deem as challenging each other for the start. 1 gun well paid CB, 1 experienced and 1 young and cheap with serious upside. If were down 2 CB's you have a versatile player like Herd who can fill in, and in emergency you promote youth, its the cycle life.

- Tongyik (starter or Competition with view to earning that starting spot)

- Hammill or Thwaite (Depth, unless we sign an absolute gun CB to paper over their cracks)

- Gun leading CB to take Cronflakes empty spot

- This is the 4th spot who should really be some youth guy on emergency.

[DeeDee]

9 minutes ago, lloydy136 said:

The bigger question to me is the club placing this much faith in gumby based off absolutely nothing.

We have kicked the crap out of a couple of garbage teams but had our pants pulled down by anyone half decent.

So now we are bringing in a whole bunch of 'his guys'. So what happens when we continue along this same path and after 5 games we are 8th and have copped another couple of hammerings off esfc and mv?

Gombau will be gone and we will be stuck with a bunch of his guys who don't fit into the system of whoever the next guy is and it will be another lost season.

He has shown nothing to deserve the faith shown in  him.

These "what ifs" can be tagged with any coach whether new, transitioning or under the pump.

Popa had a similar average year last year, made his signings and thats the dump we have today.

Now Gombau average year, will make his signings and we shall see.

If he gets sacked, we get Pep, he makes his signings and guess what, we wait and see. 

[Sithslayer1991]

6 minutes ago, lloydy136 said:

The bigger question to me is the club placing this much faith in gumby based off absolutely nothing.

We have kicked the crap out of a couple of garbage teams but had our pants pulled down by anyone half decent.

So now we are bringing in a whole bunch of 'his guys'. So what happens when we continue along this same path and after 5 games we are 8th and have copped another couple of hammerings off esfc and mv?

Gombau will be gone and we will be stuck with a bunch of his guys who don't fit into the system of whoever the next guy is and it will be another lost season.

He has shown nothing to deserve the faith shown in  him.

Oh I definitely agree I have not been happy with the way he has been playing the team especially in defense I mean its under 9s defending. And on paper and pre-season we were all excited by this team because it had potential and by far since Gombau has come in we never hit those heights. Maybe it may have been different with Hayden Foxe I'm not sure but based on the way the team has played its barely a Finals contention team

[Sithslayer1991]

4 minutes ago, DeeDee said:

Doubt Aspro gets kept on man, but if he does it has to be on minimum wage stuff.

Our defence and midfield (defensive wise) need serious upgrading. In terms of CB, we go off the succesfull Smurf approach and have 2-3 that we deem as challenging each other for the start. 1 gun well paid CB, 1 experienced and 1 young and cheap with serious upside. If were down 2 CB's you have a versatile player like Herd who can fill in, and in emergency you promote youth, its the cycle life.

- Tongyik (starter or Competition with view to earning that starting spot)

- Hammill or Thwaite (Depth, unless we sign an absolute gun CB to paper over their cracks)

- Gun leading CB to take Cronflakes empty spot

- This is the 4th spot who should really be some youth guy on emergency.

Yea I'm leaning towards Tongyik taking on of those starting spots next season. Thwaite made an article on Players voice not too long ago he may go back to the Gold Coast for family reasons and I am not even sure where the club stands with him. Hammil has been very hot and cold since he has joined us very inconsistent 

[lloydy136]

4 minutes ago, DeeDee said:

These "what ifs" can be tagged with any coach whether new, transitioning or under the pump.

Popa had a similar average year last year, made his signings and thats the dump we have today.

Now Gombau average year, will make his signings and we shall see.

If he gets sacked, we get Pep, he makes his signings and guess what, we wait and see. 

Difference is we have seen 20 rounds of gumby's coaching. We already know he is ****.

[mack]

5 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Maybe it may have been different with Hayden Foxe I'm not sure but based on the way the team has played its barely a Finals contention team

Foxe had trouble beating NPL sides and then lost to Adelaide in a home cup semi-final. It wouldn't have been different.

[DeeDee]

Just now, Sithslayer1991 said:

Yea I'm leaning towards Tongyik taking on of those starting spots next season. Thwaite made an article on Players voice not too long ago he may go back to the Gold Coast for family reasons and I am not even sure where the club stands with him. Hammil has been very hot and cold since he has joined us very inconsistent 

 

Hammil has always had the potential to be a soild enforcing club man. Hes the type of player that could find top form very randomly one year in the future. You look at him and say, Good one on one tackler, good strength, decent turn of pace and has that tough streak within him.

But his downfall will always be his tactical awareness / concentration and smarts, leadership and ball playing ability. He is crying out for someone like Wilkinson to play beside him. Someone with a voice to instruct, game smart and leadership to take control of the defence. 

[tardotz]

7 hours ago, FCB said:

Once upon a time we had Popovic, Milicic, Foxe, Covic, Bridgey, Santa, Cole, Beauchamp, D'Appuzo, Juric, Haliti, Mooy, Gibbs, Elrich, Perkatis, Trifiro, Golec giving the WSW a face, an identity. WSW meant something.

100% ....but it's not because most came from Western Sydney but more because they were rejects from other clubs, ones that nobody had hope for, nobody believed in, nobody wanted to take a chance on.....they had something to prove which sounds very similar to what a lot of people from Western Sydney face every day and that's what "United us all"

They had a coach that believed in them and made them believe......once the initial success came there was nothing else to prove and we became similar to any other club.

[echidna]

I think Tongyik is a great signing. He has strength, height, skill and vision (as evidenced last season, and with the Olyroos). I think it is ridiculous that he has not even been given one minute in 17/18. There must surely be more to it than just playing ability - perhaps a personality clash with Joyce and significant difference in expectations.

From what I have seen so far, he is a more accurate passer of the ball than Thwaite - though such a challenge would not be difficult!

 

[Paul01]

23 minutes ago, echidna said:

I think Tongyik is a great signing. He has strength, height, skill and vision (as evidenced last season, and with the Olyroos). I think it is ridiculous that he has not even been given one minute in 17/18. There must surely be more to it than just playing ability - perhaps a personality clash with Joyce and significant difference in expectations.

From what I have seen so far, he is a more accurate passer of the ball than Thwaite - though such a challenge would not be difficult!

 

I saw Tongyik at NYL Final and he was Heartless's best defender. He was better than Aspro but i think Aspro went into that match injured. I don't think Thwaite will be with us next season.

Joyce doesn't want ball-playing CB. He wants man-mountains who will block the aerial route.

[mack]

39 minutes ago, Paul01 said:

Joyce doesn't want ball-playing CB. He wants man-mountains who will block the aerial route.

Or he's racist.

[Paul01]

16 minutes ago, mack said:

Or he's racist.

Or he's an old style pommie coach!

[hawks2767]

Elrich told by Reds coach he's not needed for tonight's match.

Lock in 'A' thanks Eddie 'Tarek signs with WSW'.

[Neverbloom]

while i never really heard of Tongyik before today we have signed 2 very good players for next season and the gombau out brigade are silent because every single decision he has made in terms of the squad has been a positive one, got rid of some deadwood like jumpei who popa for some reason was obsessed with, signed some good players, the only bad thing he has done squad wise is get rid of a central defender without having someone lined up already but everything else he has done is positive

[Wanderboy]

5 minutes ago, GoatyMcGoatFace said:

while i never really heard of Tongyik before today we have signed 2 very good players for next season and the gombau out brigade are silent because every single decision he has made in terms of the squad has been a positive one, got rid of some deadwood like jumpei who popa for some reason was obsessed with, signed some good players, the only bad thing he has done squad wise is get rid of a central defender without having someone lined up already but everything else he has done is positive

Even Sotirio is getting less time.

Thank **** for that.

[Neverbloom]

2 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

Even Sotirio is getting less time.

Thank **** for that.

lol and that, i seriously wonder if it was a blank slate and he had his choice of signings what our team would look like, but you have to remember he got rid of jumpei, that is something every wanderers fan should be eternally grateful for

[StringerBellend]

7 minutes ago, GoatyMcGoatFace said:

while i never really heard of Tongyik before today we have signed 2 very good players for next season and the gombau out brigade are silent because every single decision he has made in terms of the squad has been a positive one, got rid of some deadwood like jumpei who popa for some reason was obsessed with, signed some good players, the only bad thing he has done squad wise is get rid of a central defender without having someone lined up already but everything else he has done is positive

It’s not gombau’s signings they worry me it’s how he organises the team

Although I’m a gombau skeptic (not a gombau outer)