FCB

Nope. The return date published on their web page was not in line with what MB had said in December. The earliest return was always going to be late Jan/early Feb. Whoever updated the web site got it wrong. Once they fixed it up there was a jump from 2 weeks to 5 weeks. Either way: he is nearly there. Would be nice to see him play again in red and black.

There was an MB interview a couple of months back were the young midfield pair was discussed. He praised JoD but particularly Baccus. Their combined youth, inexperience and physique has been a liability for us all season. Put someone like Brattan next to Baccus and it will be a different story. And there is still the talk about the mystery European classy player who might turn out to be a CM as well.

MB said "injured" in the press conference. I think that has more credibility than what someone put on the web site. They got Bridgey's recovery schedule wrong for weeks, until they finally fixed it up. Time will tell.

Sotirio picked up an injury.

Too expensive to have him on the bench. I'd be delighted to see Kraft, Rensing or especially Rene Adler at the club (if his knee is okay). https://www.transfermarkt.de/transfers/endendevertraege/statistik/2019/plus/0/galerie/0?ausrichtung=Torwart&spielerposition_id=alle&altersklasse=alle&land_id=40&yt0=Anzeigen

Babbel on Juric back in August. "And I’ve coached Australians as well. Tomi Juric, Oli Bozanic and Nikita Rukavytsya are among them. Each of them was very skilful. On their day they were better than many, many other players. Still, the problem was that they couldn’t do it every week. Once every four games is not enough. You need to show your best at least three times out of four. I spent time working on each of them but especially with Tomi at Luzern for the last two years because I could see his talent. I’m sure he can play in one of the big leagues – Germany, England, Italy or Spain – but when we began his mentality was not strong enough. I’ve seen him improve a lot. He might still make that next step." https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/babbel-the-a-leagues-too-easy-on-players-500475 Juric is injury prone, his track record in Luzern is inconsistent. European clubs would have snatched him up by now if there was a belief that "he might still make that next step". The HAL is not the same league it was when Juric left. He'd be struggling. We don't need another struggling key player. We need a leader up front who scores goals, and doesn't spend half of the season in sick bay.

And so the myth is kept alive. Kerem was shown the door because he blew up the locker room. He was baccus snr on steroids. Pio knew when the time had come to only open his mouth for ice cream consumption, Kerem may want to pay attention to that. What Kerem needed was a personality makeover a decade ago. Instead he became a toxic player who is a risk to every club.

He'd be as good as Scott and Nizic = not good enough. On top of that he talks a lot, without backing it up in training or on the pitch. Which is the reason why his talk is just talk. The coaching group and the other players would really love that... But it does make a nice story, a fairy tale like Haensel and Gretel that some enjoy going back to: was a promising youth player, then did stuff all apart from avoiding jail, comes back to Sydney and scores 6 goals in 18 minutes, one of them in the smoke, got himself arrested while trying to eat a burger, did stuff all again, then celebrated a goal that wasn't one, and the one thing he has done since is coke. Calling him poor man's Pio would be an insult to Pio. He'll never get a job again at WSW.

Mileusnic (if true and healthy), Yeboah, Duke - we will be heading into next season with talented, fast, proven, physically strong wingers. Very different to Kamau, Fitzgerald, and Bridgey.

Indeed! There was a wave of injuries starting during season prep, and that appears to have had something to do with the AFL fitness coach which has since been replaced. This has hampered our season. It appears that Ziegler is out for the season, and one has to wonder how a straightforward meniscus operation can go so wrong. It usually takes six weeks, not six months. That no injury replacement was signed for Bridgey was a major issue, that's were the club should have stepped up, in my view. Besides, that he trained the way he did just about qualifies as self mutilation. One can also argue that the Baccus Snr issue should not have allowed to linger, but I think it was a case of the player saying one thing and doing something else. When he finally left, the farewell notice was very close to telling him to "**** off". The club was clearly very much pissed off with him. That Roly re-discovers his mojo while Oriol and Raul lose it is a mystery to me. Something clearly went wrong, and yes, one could call it mismanagement. If and how all of this could have been foreseen and mitigated, that's a different conversation.

After losing games narrowly and/or late we got hammered by the Jets. MB felt that morale might be dropping dangerously, and he decided to shake the players group up, in an attempt to force a reaction. One can argue that his intervention was successful. Before the game MB reminded the team that there were 30 points up for grabs. BL2 is a tight, crazy competition, and late recoveries and collapses are not unusual. He hasn't given up hope that they can start winning games - if you want a miracle then you have to believe in it. We all know that this deep into the season, considering how far we are behind Nix and City, this is a stretch, but throwing the rest of the season is not an option. We need to show up in every game, and show a performance. The stats: Imagine the Smurfs with Brosque out all season, van der Linden, Zullo, Grant being out for most of the season, Brilliante forcing a transfer before the season starts, Retre and O'Neill from five years ago running their midfield, Redders scoring a few own goals, le Fondre scoring 2 goals not a dozen, Ninkovic being injured midseason, de Jong playing out of position, the two midseason recruits being unfit and injury prone, and the Smurfs being forced to fill the gaps with squaddies and youth players. The results will be accordingly. That's what we have been experiencing this season, and that's what the stats aren't saying.

It's part of his KPIs - he personally needs to go to one game per season, do a head count of the spectators, and check if the atmosphere is in line with NRL principles. On Monday he'll be asked by the new chairman: "is the game dead yet?", and his response will be "not quite, but pretty close, almost there". I am sure he much more enjoyed yesterday than his appearance at the S1 semi. Unless he was wearing a noise cancelling head set that night, the Parramatta-boos must still ring in his ears.

MB comes from an environment where non-performing players are out of a job very quickly. If you do the same thing here in Australia then you just go to a different club. There is something fundamentally wrong with this, and MB is trying to sweep it out of the door. He felt that the rot was about to set in after the Jets game, and that had to remind the players that they are professionals who play for three points every weekend - that's quite telling. I maintain my optimism, even thought this season seems down the plug hole. Not once did we field our best 11, and yet we could/should have had results against all other teams in the comp. Throwing a season is not an option for MB and the coaching group, and they haven't entirely written it off. Maybe something can be salvaged once Treejack, Ziegler, and Bridgey return. But if we finish the season as the team no one wants to play then that will have to do.

@Wendy, Teach, you were wondering why MB publicly had a go at the team after the Jets game. He answered that question in the press conference last night. https://www.a-league.com.au/video/full-press-conference-markus-babbel-15

Soaking up the "family friendly" atmosphere, by the looks of it.