Who's signed for next season

[shinAUFC]

so 12 days to season start, no 5th via player and Bruce's words of signings at end of August appear to be typical of previous seasons. Squad still lacks CB and midfield depth/ quality.

I’m getting worried tbh.

Not only are we wasting our last visa spot on a kid from the Chinese third division, we still haven’t replaced Isaias or Regan.

That is inexcusable and the club should be receiving backlash.

We are certainly in a bit if a pickle, its not a situation you want to be in 2 weeks out.

However I wouldn't say the club deserves some backlash given they were blind sighted by not 1 but 2 of our highest paid players accepting a transfers initiating their buy out clause and both of them were considered Australian players.

Isaias’ departure was a problem because there was a lack of aussie dm’s in the market with a whole extra club in the league, had boland the skills as a defensive mid then i think we could have bridged the midfield deficit.

There is just no way we can replace goodwin and isa with free australian players, I would go as far to say Mooy is the only aussie could offer more than isaias.

In regard to the chinese player.. its a tough one. We seemingly have a well run club with football passion from the very top and more money than we have ever had. If the pay off is that we lose a Visa spot to gamble with a chinese player then so be it.

It would be very handy if they waited till january to bring the chinese lad over and sign a visa dm now with the intention of releasing boland in the january window, or just postponed the chinese signing altogether.

[ChillyPhilly]

We desperately need a new CDM. Boland and McGree are the same player, though the latter will probably be played in a more advanced role.

[blahblah]

We desperately need a new CDM. Boland and McGree are the same player, though the latter will probably be played in a more advanced role.

We have a CDM in D'Arrigo who has been perfoming well with both the Young Socceroos and our NPL side.

Is he ready to step up?

[Rojos]

We desperately need a new CDM. Boland and McGree are the same player, though the latter will probably be played in a more advanced role.

We have a CDM in D'Arrigo who has been perfoming well with both the Young Socceroos and our NPL side.

Is he ready to step up?

Fk yeh, throw him in there!

[sub007]

so 12 days to season start, no 5th via player and Bruce's words of signings at end of August appear to be typical of previous seasons. Squad still lacks CB and midfield depth/ quality.

I’m getting worried tbh.

Not only are we wasting our last visa spot on a kid from the Chinese third division, we still haven’t replaced Isaias or Regan.

That is inexcusable and the club should be receiving backlash.

We are certainly in a bit if a pickle, its not a situation you want to be in 2 weeks out.

However I wouldn't say the club deserves some backlash given they were blind sighted by not 1 but 2 of our highest paid players accepting a transfers initiating their buy out clause and both of them were considered Australian players.

Isaias’ departure was a problem because there was a lack of aussie dm’s in the market with a whole extra club in the league, had boland the skills as a defensive mid then i think we could have bridged the midfield deficit.

There is just no way we can replace goodwin and isa with free australian players, I would go as far to say Mooy is the only aussie could offer more than isaias.

In regard to the chinese player.. its a tough one. We seemingly have a well run club with football passion from the very top and more money than we have ever had. If the pay off is that we lose a Visa spot to gamble with a chinese player then so be it.

It would be very handy if they waited till january to bring the chinese lad over and sign a visa dm now with the intention of releasing boland in the january window, or just postponed the chinese signing altogether.

I’m going to have to disagree.

The club shouldn’t have been blindsided by Goodwin’s departure as he was always likely to leave. I’m disappointed that we haven’t replaced him but I understand there aren’t many Aussies available. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think we jumped the gun when we signed Maria.

The departure of Isaias was a shock one but the club had months to sign a replacement and failed to do so. This isn’t remotely close to being acceptable. There have been a few players snapped up by other clubs (Malik, Brillante, Aiden O’Neill on loan for example) and Mile Jedinak is still a free agent.

The club still hasn’t signed any defensive cover whatsoever which is also unacceptable. It would be incredibly easy to sign or trial a free agent or a few NPL players. It staggers me how the club could fail to do something so simple.

The Chinese player really irks me. Surely Piet can see that we need a DM so I don’t understand why he won’t let us use our last visa spot on a quality player.

[sub007]

Yengi has been signed on a scholarship contract.

[EdDog]

so 12 days to season start, no 5th via player and Bruce's words of signings at end of August appear to be typical of previous seasons. Squad still lacks CB and midfield depth/ quality.

I’m getting worried tbh.

Not only are we wasting our last visa spot on a kid from the Chinese third division, we still haven’t replaced Isaias or Regan.

That is inexcusable and the club should be receiving backlash.

We are certainly in a bit if a pickle, its not a situation you want to be in 2 weeks out.

However I wouldn't say the club deserves some backlash given they were blind sighted by not 1 but 2 of our highest paid players accepting a transfers initiating their buy out clause and both of them were considered Australian players.

Isaias’ departure was a problem because there was a lack of aussie dm’s in the market with a whole extra club in the league, had boland the skills as a defensive mid then i think we could have bridged the midfield deficit.

There is just no way we can replace goodwin and isa with free australian players, I would go as far to say Mooy is the only aussie could offer more than isaias.

In regard to the chinese player.. its a tough one. We seemingly have a well run club with football passion from the very top and more money than we have ever had. If the pay off is that we lose a Visa spot to gamble with a chinese player then so be it.

It would be very handy if they waited till january to bring the chinese lad over and sign a visa dm now with the intention of releasing boland in the january window, or just postponed the chinese signing altogether.

I’m going to have to disagree.

The club shouldn’t have been blindsided by Goodwin’s departure as he was always likely to leave. I’m disappointed that we haven’t replaced him but I understand there aren’t many Aussies available. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think we jumped the gun when we signed Maria.

The departure of Isaias was a shock one but the club had months to sign a replacement and failed to do so. This isn’t remotely close to being acceptable. There have been a few players snapped up by other clubs (Malik, Brillante, Aiden O’Neill on loan for example) and Mile Jedinak is still a free agent.

The club still hasn’t signed any defensive cover whatsoever which is also unacceptable. It would be incredibly easy to sign or trial a free agent or a few NPL players. It staggers me how the club could fail to do something so simple.

The Chinese player really irks me. Surely Piet can see that we need a DM so I don’t understand why he won’t let us use our last visa spot on a quality player.

Second.

[shinAUFC]

I understand the sentiment with isaias and goodwin, it would be ideal to have back up plans in the likely case they are given big money deals overseas.

Where i disagree is how could any club in a salary capped league and limited squad numbers ever plan for such a thing. The margin of safety is so small given the restrictions so leaving cash or visa spots open because something “might” happen in a few months could be even more hazardous and no doubt leave fans more furious.

With the salary cap and squad restrictions if we play that game we simply end up robbing peter to pay paul because something might happen according to our crystal ball and we could just end up catching a falling knife in the end .

I wonder if the club is considering releasing boland, or offering him a coaching role. I feel like we could cover losing boland in place of a dm

[shinAUFC]

I think the chinese 5th visa may become bruce gate 2.0 as the season rolls along lol.

Genuine arguments for and against it tbh.

[blahblah]

We desperately need a new CDM. Boland and McGree are the same player, though the latter will probably be played in a more advanced role.

We have a CDM in D'Arrigo who has been perfoming well with both the Young Socceroos and our NPL side.

Is he ready to step up?

Fk yeh, throw him in there!

I'm calling it

[sub007]

I understand the sentiment with isaias and goodwin, it would be ideal to have back up plans in the likely case they are given big money deals overseas.

Where i disagree is how could any club in a salary capped league and limited squad numbers ever plan for such a thing. The margin of safety is so small given the restrictions so leaving cash or visa spots open because something “might” happen in a few months could be even more hazardous and no doubt leave fans more furious.

With the salary cap and squad restrictions if we play that game we simply end up robbing peter to pay paul because something might happen according to our crystal ball and we could just end up catching a falling knife in the end .

I wonder if the club is considering releasing boland, or offering him a coaching role. I feel like we could cover losing boland in place of a dm

Piet has spoken about planning the squad for years in advance so the salary cap isn't an excuse. Other clubs can replace players they have lost so there's no excuse why we can't do the same, especially as we have only lost 3 starters who were our highest earning players.

We should have a marquee spot free as well.

[RedsUnited]

I don't like being restricted by having this Chinese player from our Chinese 3rd Division sister club taking up our final foreign spot. Especially when we could definitely do better elsewhere.

[Stuckey]

I don't like being restricted by having this Chinese player from our Chinese 3rd Division sister club taking up our final foreign spot. Especially when we could definitely do better elsewhere.

This player will be very interesting IMO. I very much doubt it will be a player from the current squad of Qingdao as their level is a massive drop to the HAL. I expect it to be a player Qingdao have their eye on but aren't at the level to sign yet.
My hope (and that's all this is) is that Qingdao/the owners are showing some ambition here and are funding AU's signing of a young prospect that will benefit from playing at HAL for a couple of seasons. By then hopefully Qingdao are at a higher level and the young prospect has developed as well and comes into the Qingdao squad as a massive boost for them and the hopes of continuing to be promoted.

My hope with this relationship is that Qingdao do get to a higher level so AU can use this club to their benefit as well. Players like Blackwood and Konstand basically don't play and develop if they don't play HAL football, as their ability to play in the NPL with AU is blocked. It would be great to see AU loan these players out to Qingdao and they play at a decent level and are allowed time to develop by actually playing a decent amount of games. This works well for both clubs as the HAL and CSL don't overlap massively compared to HAL and most Euro leagues.

Just re-visiting where Qingdao are at CSL2 probably isn't a bad level to throw young HAL contracts players into if they are after game time.

One other aspect I'm very excited about is that the visa rules in China are tighter than the HAL as they follow the 3+1 rule. So there is a large number of CSL and CSL1 clubs with big name visa players either playing reserves or out on loan. So presumably AU would have access to those sort of players should Qingdao get into that position.

[RedsUnited]

That's a lot of "ifs" but with the reality of it right now, none of that will likely happen. I would love the owners to prove me wrong and sign someone who would be of the Isaias ilk, but chances are high that they aren't.

Instead of campaigning for an extra visa spot, I think we should be looking at maximising our existing allotment instead of locking ourselves out of potentially better options because we MUST have a Qingdao player.

[otto62]

I’m happy enough to give up a visa spot for a Chinese player, provided the club off the field keeps going in the direction it is.

Would I like Isaias MkII? Sure, but we were never going to get a replacement player of his ability. We were lucky to have Isaias. He was one-of-a-kind.

I also think it’s too soon to write off Boland as our CDM. It also shows a clear intent to attack, as Boland does push higher than Isaias. I’m happy with that.