Official Melbourne Victory Thread II [R]

I would support a new club as long as it was not Hellas South Melbourne.

I love the Victory, but a new club would need my support far more than MVFC currently does. In saying that though, I could not follow an ethnically based club, as that is against the whole ethos of the A-League, and quite frankly a joke

 

If this club is going to be based in Melbourne and playing at the same home ground as the victory, why would anyone want to support them over the Victory? how is this gonna work? shouldn't there at least be some sort of geographic difference between two melb clubs? i kinda like the 1 city 1 team thing with the exception of Sydney which is so big you can have more than 1 team.

 

True. But the size of the city shouldn't really be what is important. Yes Sydney is bigger, but Melbourne attracts larger crowds. I would think it would be a safer option for the A-league to base a second club in Melbourne knowing that it has the fan base to support it.

 

For the full article:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/socce...of-early-return/2008/05/11/1210444243142.html

Well this looks promising!!! I think Fabiano (if we get him) would be a good fit for us as he plays a bit more direct than we tend to. I think its interesting too that we're looking at Jose 'Puppy' Lopez. You'd think looking at our list that we're a bit heavy in midfield but in the wash up from the AC I think our defensive third let us down a bit and a good defensive midfielder would make a big difference. You'd think coming from Saprissa he'd have to be one of the better DM in Costa Rica.

I think this line up would look pretty good, and a strong bench too!!!

------------------Fabiano-----Thompson-------------
-----------Celeski------Hernandez-------Ward-------
-----------------------------------------------------
------------------------Lopez------------------------
------Piorkowski----------------------------Ryall-----
------------------Muscat------Vargas---------------
----------------------Theolklitos--------------------

Int: Langerak Allsopp Pondeljak Broxham

 

Great to hear they're continuing to look at Costa Rica for players. I do believe they should not limit themselves to only Costa Rica though, but also look at other Central American countries, such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. But especially Honduras who have really been producing a GREAT batch of players in the past few years. Arguably better than Costa Rica's players who are beginning to look less and less impressive as the years go by.

 

Yeah true, why not take the short trip over from Costa Rica if they're going to be scouting there anyway. Its interesting - i've read that Honduras produce some quality footballers but they never seem to do very well in Concacaf... not quite sure why, resources maybe?? Anyway i'd imagine their players would be comparatively affordable too. I'd really like to see Melbourne put more resources into their scouting systems. I think its an area that we could really get a competetive edge on the rest of the A-League especially considering we're one of the few clubs making money. Theres no salary cap on the resources you pump into scouting. I don't see any reason why we couldn't recruit 2-3 Fred's or Hernandez's in the same season and really own the comp!!! But I guess i'd equally like to see some of those resources pumped into our new youth team and start producing our own home grown stars like we've seen Queensland and Newcastle do (even though they didn't necessarily produce those players themselves).

 

Any news on Merrick's trip to CA??

There are reports in the Costa Rica forum that he is already there and scouting Lopez and Gabriel.

Anyone able to confirm this??

 

I havn't heard anything about how the trip is going but I do know that Merrick has gone on record as saying we won't be signing Gabriels. He said the reason was a timing issue, I guess with his contract or something.

 

I found this interesting.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/socce...r-scouting-trip/2008/05/15/1210765058467.html

Might be in Honduras after all.

 

And lets not forget El Salvador

 

So with Ernie now confirmed to be in Central America. What kind of player do you think he would be looking for?? I mean, it had been said he wanted a striker and a defensive midfielder, but as it stands there are no more foreigner spots avalible. And if it's true that Love will be let go soon, then will Erine be looking for a straight switch with a striker, or would he go after the Def. Mid, and hope Thompson, Allsopp and Elasi can stay injury free next season??

 

I still think that he'll be after a DM and striker. I think Love is pretty much gone but I also think that Keenan and Brebner are no certainties to stay so I think he'll be looking at both positions. With Piorkowski out he might check out some LB too. Kemp and Keenan look pretty weak IMO. I think we're really gonna miss Piorkowski - he had the potential to be the one of the best defenders in the comp.

 

Interesting.......

Pretty much says how Merrick was in Costa Rica, making connections with various clubs and scouting players. It also says Merrick would not confirm if he was there to finalize any contract negotioations but moreso just to look. And although he says he was not there to sign anybody, he does state that he held talks with 20 players and in the end signed only one. Although he failed to mention who that was.

 

Yeah no worries

Here's the link*: Saprissa ‘encoge’ la cancha para practicar
*The bit about Ernie is in the bottom third of the article.

 

well costa rican gabrial is romoured to sign but then were also romoured to be signing ney fabiano. so things are getting intresting. bring on juventus next friday.

 

I think it's safe to say that the Gabriels rumor is now all but dead after Merrick confirmed he wouldn't be signing the player due to "timing issues". So as it stands, it's looking like a pretty strong chance that Lopez will be the one signed, or atleast thats what the Costa Rican newspapers seem to think.

On another note, what's the deal with Fabiano. I mean he's an ok player, nothing special. Apart from the fact that he's a striker and that's something the Victory are short on, why has he got so much interest?? To me, if they are looking to sign someone from Chonburi, then they should get Stephane Baga. That guys quality

 

Yeah, Braga is the one to go after. He demonstrated some quality finishing in your loss to Chonburi earlier in the ACL. He's Cameroonian apparently and I would presume he'd command similar wages to Ney Fabiano.

There's little doubt that Braga would be a gun in the A-League and would tear it up, like how Reinaldo did for Roar, later last season.

 

Hmm well seems Merrick/Victory went for Fabiano, they signed him today:

Fabiano or Braga, either way they're both quality players and Fabiano will surely improve the depth to your striking department considerably. And considering how key guys like Hernandez and Archie were injured for decent periods, like ACL recently, he could often be called upon.

This is another great advantage of playing in the ACL, coming across talent like this, from such leagues. It can mean little need to scout or trial players I guess . Lazy bastards .

Now I wish Mitchell/Glory would get onto the likes of Braga or that South African 'Philani' fellow from Vietnam.

 

You guys took our lad Fabiano, but really, for Chonburi we can easily replace him, this year he hasn't even started to fire and we haven't been able to find the net as much as we would have liked.

He's done well on the show piece scene on the ACL, but domestically hasn't done anything this year. You would have been much more worth while taking on Leesaw from BEC Tero Sasana, who's still young but will has so much fight and aggresion and leads the line for BEC and National team very well, would also command a lot less money and he's had experience in England with Everton and Crystal Palace.

 

druryfire, I am guessing you are speaking of Teerathep Winothai? Yeah, we've heard good things about him here in Australia. I'd love for Perth Glory to actively keep tabs/possibly pursue him. I'm not sure what he'd demand. In Perth Glory's case, we don't have a Marquee, but Glory would certainly not sign Winothai on a Marquee wage, neither would the other A-League clubs, no offence. But a club like Glory, I believe, should certainly pursue a player of his calibre as he'd certainly compliment their current strikers very well.

Yeah, Fabiano is certainly not the marquee, so I presume Victory got him for reasonable value. He's not guaranteed to start regularly either, he has to fight for a place, so I doubt his wage would be much higher than the likes of non-marquee stars Danny Allsopp, Kevin Muscat and Carlos Hernandez.

BTW That Hernandez, if he continues on and performs well early next season, I'd hope Melbourne sign him on a permanent, longer term contract. As I remember he was signed on a 2-Year Loan from his Costa Rican Club. He will be entering the 2nd year of that contract this coming season.