He's 29, they're offering twice what Palmer the Hutt can with more first team football than he'd likely get in Europe. Pretty much the right move.
It's weird, this one. The transfer was made, the money was exchanged, yet the Gold Coast held onto the transfer certificate. It's hard to know what can happen, since I can't think of any similar scenario. Obviously he still has everything at the Gold Coast, so it's clear that he'll go back there. But it'd be interesting if there was some kind of fine print that meant he could go to another A-League club as a technical "free agent."
What a clusterf**k Hardcore Bukkake Jesus. That buzzing noise you can hear is the Hutt ringing every lawyer this side of the equator.
No surprises there. Everything about it has seemed iffy since the start. Smeltz family must be a group of drama queens. I'd be seriously annoyed if I were the Shandong coach, or even a fan, though. Knowing we're paying $1m for a year with a player who doesn't actually want to play for us.
Man that's some impressive irony: the reason Jabba is in the football biz is to improve his schmoozing capacity with Chinese magnates - but now he's got to use his business clout to fix up a footballing mess...
When Jase says 'stable', bear in mind he is coached by [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR3DV1MOp1U"]this man[/ame].
My Australian friend is a Gold Coast United fanatic, so I tentatively support them. I'll probably watch their season opener versus Brisbane online, if the timezone difference isn't too great. I can't wait til I get FIFA 10 (my first soccer game since FIFA 2006) so I can play through the A-League.
I don't know what the club expects with their 'do nothing' approach to improving their crowds. There is no radio advertising, TV advertising (maybe not possible at the moment) etc. Before I left, you never heard of players heading out to the malls or schools or anything like that yet Titans players were everywhere, the Titans always had radio ads and for big crunch games, TV ads. Palmer & Mensink seem to have the idea that they can try and win everything or something and the crowds will come or ride off World Cup hype when that isn't it at all. It is really sad as fickle as the Gold Coast public can be, in letters to the editor and stuff to the Bulletin many people have stated that they would like to get behind the team and stuff but the way Palmer & Mensink have managed it has been atrocious and they can't do it. As sad as it would be, maybe losing the license would be a good thing and maybe re-apply on next expansion if there is one with a different group (ie like the old Galaxy bid).
The way Gold Coast are going financially especially in regards to there attendances, I don't think they will be around next season
On the plus side, their advertising costs must be next to nil since they aren't doing any print, tv, or radio ads, or player appearances, etc.
To be honest, folding would be the best thing for them. Give the license to Canberra and move on. "Gold Coast United" has already damaged it's own rep way too much, no locals will ever be interested in it now after all the debacles(Not that they were interested in the first place). The A-League can go back to the Gold Coast after a few years and try to start up something new, because the current franchise is an accident waiting to happen really. It's not "could" GCU fold anymore...it's "when" are they folding to be honest.