Who's signed for next season

[The Claw]

Look we got Lia and Marrone as dm and cb cover, so definitely needed another offensive midfielder to cover that critical gap in the squad.


Seriously, makes no sense whatsoever as far as squad need. But like it was ever about squad need with this signing...

[bpowell454]

It would have been nice to have him for the preseason at least so we could of had a look at him in some friendlies. At least we have 7 bench spots now so we can get a chance to see him play with potentially less risk.

Probably the worst announcements for a Visa player in HAL history? They haven't even tried to talk him up as a great signing.

[EdDog]

Look we got Lia and Marrone as dm and cb cover, so definitely needed another offensive midfielder to cover that critical gap in the squad.


Seriously, makes no sense whatsoever as far as squad need. But like it was ever about squad need with this signing...

It would have been nice to have him for the preseason at least so we could of had a look at him in some friendlies. At least we have 7 bench spots now so we can get a chance to see him play with potentially less risk.

Probably the worst announcements for a Visa player in HAL history? They haven't even tried to talk him up as a great signing.

Two posts that mirror my thoughts exactly.

[shinAUFC]

An attacking mid? Thats come out of left field.

Piet mentioned chen is one of the most talented Quingdao youth prospects, given they have produced 2 players for the chinese youth national team its possible he may have some talent.

Unless one of us can read mandarin his playing history will not be available to us.

Hopefully fans separate their frustrations on the signing from this kid and give him a chance to perform.

I wonder if a warland / blackwood swap is on the cards in january?

[EdDog]

It's frustrating to see the flow-on effect the 5th visa being Chinese is having on the rest of our recruitment.

We are seeing various swap deals proposed, some of our most promising players rumoured to be leaving, we are not able to secure quality in positions we desperately need to...

Can't imagine the existing players are happy with it either.

[sevengoals]

Interesting final signing even though it has been clear for a while that we were getting a Chinese youngster.

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.
We will just have to wait and see how this all pans out.

[sub007]

An attacking mid? Thats come out of left field.

Piet mentioned chen is one of the most talented Quingdao youth prospects, given they have produced 2 players for the chinese youth national team its possible he may have some talent.

Unless one of us can read mandarin his playing history will not be available to us.

Hopefully fans separate their frustrations on the signing from this kid and give him a chance to perform.

I wonder if a warland / blackwood swap is on the cards in january?

This was posted by a Twitter account called AUFC: “Just been told by Chinese football fans that Yongbin Chen played amateur football last season and hasn’t even played a game for Qingdao yet, as he’s only just signed... ”


That would explain why I couldn’t find him on the Qingdao’s wiki page or their club website.

[Old Gregg]

Hahaha fuck.
Chuck him in the Youth side and see how he goes.

[bpowell454]

Hmmmm. The more I think about this, the more disappointing it is. This is purely a business decision by the owner. The coach and football director have both said that the HAL needs to add a visa spot yet we are wasting this spot. It feels a bit Pissant.

I hope that I'm wrong and this kid is absolutely amazing but it will still come at a cost.

[RedsUnited]

As I had said earlier...

Whichever way you look at it, a 3rd division Chinese league CB is a waste of a visa spot when we have a DM position crying out for attention. You want your visa players to be playing in the first XI week in week out - just who would be shifted to the bench to accommodate him? If he's not playing every week, then what benefit is he to the team, the expected profit-boosting on-sale for the club, or to himself for not getting game time? It just makes 0 sense to be locking ourselves out of other options like this.

I guess if he hasn't been playing anyway, the only way is up!

I'd be interested to read more about the kid, but without knowing his Chinese name it's near impossible to find anything at all. Being able to read Chinese, I have been entering in various "Yong Bin" combinations into Google in combination with various terms like "Qingdao" and "football" with no luck.

I would take whatever that "AUFC" twitter account says with a grain of salt too until more concrete info can be sourced.

[Jessesdad]

I found Troisi's signing particularly offensive. Maybe this lad is his backup?

[sub007]

I found Troisi's signing particularly offensive. Maybe this lad is his backup?

Wouldn’t Brook be his backup?

[sub007]

As I had said earlier...

Whichever way you look at it, a 3rd division Chinese league CB is a waste of a visa spot when we have a DM position crying out for attention. You want your visa players to be playing in the first XI week in week out - just who would be shifted to the bench to accommodate him? If he's not playing every week, then what benefit is he to the team, the expected profit-boosting on-sale for the club, or to himself for not getting game time? It just makes 0 sense to be locking ourselves out of other options like this.

I guess if he hasn't been playing anyway, the only way is up!

I'd be interested to read more about the kid, but without knowing his Chinese name it's near impossible to find anything at all. Being able to read Chinese, I have been entering in various "Yong Bin" combinations into Google in combination with various terms like "Qingdao" and "football" with no luck.

I would take whatever that "AUFC" twitter account says with a grain of salt too until more concrete info can be sourced.

Rob Greenwood said he didn’t play a single game for Qingdao as well so the account is probably correct.

[Jumbinho]

So if the owners are looking to turn this into a money spinner, can we expect them to try and influence selections to get this kid on the park and in the shop window?

For all the really positive things that have gone on in the offseason, this seems like a fairly sizeable misstep on face value.

[blahblah]

I'd urge caution on the cascading speculation.

I'm prepared to wait and see what the coach thinks of him and then see how he performs when he makes it onto the pitch.