he’d struggle to make it as a professional GK if he was coming through the system in todays age.

ryan would be an absolute pass from me and many clubs given his height, regardless of how good his reflexes and distribution are – you cant teach height in his position unfortunately

that family of 4 is forgiven.

its the other several thousand paid members who didnt attend where the issue is.

bear in mind i spoke last week of players who were here keeping matchfit during the winter break but i havent personally seen klomp at training yet (hopefully in the next day or two) and i’m not overly familiar with him – so i cant give any form of opinion.

all im aware of is the existing relationship with faber and remember just because a player is on trial with a club doesnt mean they will sign (AU had 2 ghanians on trial who faber knew and neither signed)

excellent i was hoping someone would highlight that passage what i wrote. (because i wanted to elaborate on it more)

its great being a head coach, but if you havent got the right people in your inner circle – you will ultimately struggle.

with the exception of milligan (and galekovic, but hes been here long enough to become honorary lol) everyone has come through the sa development system and played football at the highest level in australia or overseas (dodd, mori, ross etc etc)

talent identification with myself, adrian and cello leading this and relationships forged though the SA FF.

board and owners have been very supportive in all aspects (except with finances for the playing squad lol.)

people underestimate the impact faber is having not just on the club, but carl as a coach – this is eerily similar to when amor was brought in many years ago in the same position

oh absolutely a roof around the whole stadium could be done, but as im sure you’re away the government of south australia is a stickler for rules when it comes to ‘heritage’

i mean look at the land of promise (the strip club on port road near the groud for any interstators that visited lol)

thats been sold to real estate developers who are going to make a multi story office complex out of it, however they cant knockdown the front bar due to heritage laws (so that will end of being a coffee place for all the office workers that move in

great local media coverage in adelaide of the side this season – whether its the local version of channels 10/9/7, print media, socials.

the only issue i have is there has not been much coverage on the sides of public transport (buses, trams, taxi) or on large building in the city

no one (with the exception of me lol) has openly come out and said adelaide shouldn’t win the league from this position.

i dont speak much about carl on here, but lets discuss him
at the end of the day hes still got unfinished business with adelaide, until he wins silverwear i dont think he’ll go anywhere – thats the one issue that has been levelled at him as a coach, winning a trophy
4/6 times semi finals of the cup and 4/6 times one win from the grand final.
is he the best coach in the a league currently? thats a matter of personal opinion (i think hes comfortably the best coach to have not won a trophy though)
if we look at him it purely from a “ticking box point of view as coach”
*grew up in SA, played for arguably 1 of the 2 best NSL sides of all times (adelaide city), played for adelaide united as well – he is SA through and through
*best developer of teenagers in this country
*very good eye for talent
*very good eye when it comes to staff (an underestimated skill in coaching, finding the right assistant coach, analyst, talent identifier)
*improved players that other sides have let go
*a good track record with visa signings.
*box office in front of the camera (whether during the match or at press conferences.
*will defend his club/players against the league and opposition supporters and coaches.
*shown how to work on a small budget (i’d love to see how he would do with a lot of money)
*always wants his sides to attack, irrespective of how they defend – the mantra is always, we’ll score more than you.
*i doubt any coach in the a league would be able to deal with massive issues like he has eg. the first openly gay player in the league, the circus around irakunda.
*shown that he can introduce subs at the right time to change games (was a critisizim labelled at him early in his coaching career)
*capable of changing formation/tactics on the fly (altered how the side is playing this season compared to teams of his in the past)
the only thing that will stop carl going overseas will be his temper – he is a fiery character, i’ve seen him tear strips off players in training and i’ve also seen him lose it during a match of golf when he missed an easy put (thought he was about to go all happy gilmour haha)
its one thing having that passion and fire with young players he’s known for years, but i imagine alot of other young players wouldnt be able to cope with that level of ‘combustibility’
carls a very competitive person in life in general, but he’s also a really solid standup guy
his coaching abilities are the prototype of what an australian professional coach should be/look like

Kye’s agent i can comment on since i know zeljko – i have a very good working relationship with him to the point where he is always asking for who i believe will be the next talent out of SA. – over a dozen South Australians on his books currently.

kye’s also another player i wasnt sold on when he much younger (still don’t think hes international quality either haha)

one too many? absolutely right lol considering large portions of the actual football media and interstate fans are still writing off adelaide this season and cant seem to work how and why they are top with an ‘average squad’ – its laughable that people cant see past the club they actually support

cannot keep writing them off this season, they are the real deal – they should take out the minor premiership from here (with auckland and city having alot of interstate matches to play and adelaide not so many)

like i’ve said time and time now that the ‘circus’ which surrounded irakunda is gone – people are starting to see how good and well coached a side adelaide are.(and how hamstrung they were with irakunda, but thats a story for another time + i know certain people will not like what i just wrote) haha

you do realise that both sydney and melbourne have more paying memberships that 15,000? – they should be looking at getting 30,000 to matches not 15,000

shock horror, this might actually be the first article anyone has done on adelaide this current season (i havent even submitted one yet) – and it included some digs at sydney fc

cant extend hindmarsh unfortunately, with heritage listings behind both goal ends.

however, they could easily get the ground up to around 23,000 seats like at the sydney olympics with temporary seating.

thats about the only big improvement you can make to arguably the best football specific ground in the country.

fee shocked me a little bit, because personally i didnt rate him as high as other centrebacks that have come through sydney a couple years prior and specifically in the last couple years – but hey, i cant be right all the time haha

i’ve never had any dealings with his agency, so i cant give any insight into what they are like – all i know is they specialise in transfers in and to england.

but this a good example of an agent being able to extract a decent amount for an australia player

In a parallel universe that more then likely would’ve involved me.

I was offered a full time position by ante which would’ve meant uprooting my family as well as a part time remote role from adelaide (which would’ve had me in brisbane only 3-4 days a month)

I said no to both

he had a very good offer from perth (it was in the ballpark of $250k more a season) but his family were settled, i believe that was the ultimate factor in him not going. – given how young his kids were (and still are) and how theyve really enjoyed where they live

sydney fc dont have good ownership lol – if that was the case they wouldn’t be losing as much money as they do every year

partly because of the stupid money they are paying weekly to extremely average visa players and the poor turn out each home game (the figures are incredibly deceiving due to the wanderers match)

the SFS is incredibly expensive to hire, yet the biggest club in the country can’t even fill up a quarter of its capacity weekly?

remember macarthur need 12,000 paying fans a week to turn up to just break even (if you dont believe me, why dont you ask the owners of this website who were contacted directly by macathur and asked to remove what i wrote in an article just last year in relation to that figure ?)

and thats a side who has the best stadium deal in the country, that is still losing 2 million+ a year.

victory lost almost 8 million dollars in one season (and this was a club that was regularly turning over a high 6 figure profit for multiple seasons in the infancy of the a league)

i mean theres clubs in the NSW NPL that lose 6 figures a season (but get bailed out by members of the community dipping into their own pockets)

that why its embarrassing for the “big 4” (sydney/victory/city/wanderers) and even perth (who have the third highest wage bill in the league for years)

to see sides a side like adelaide doing well season after season – given how different the financials are of the clubs.

adelaides front 4’s from last night combined weekly wage is still less than what lolley earns a week.

the APL’s ‘funding cuts’ do not effect the big 4 – they all know how to get around the cap (ive given plenty of examples on here on ways to avoid id) – which is why the salary cap is a joke

brissy have alot of ‘building blocks’ already at the club (if you go back from my posts from a few year ago there’s several young kids i expected would make the grade after the class of trew/JCP – ince, klein, macnicol, herrington waddingham.

the problem is the people (without experience) making wrong decisions when it comes to recruitment:

*jay o shea – i know people love him (and you know my views on uk players, so hes rubbish lol) but brissy should’ve let him leave for perth before he signed that contract extension.

he could’ve saved brissy several hundred grand by going and brissy could’ve invested that money into 3 solid ‘a league level players’

* the GK dilemma – i have extensive reports on both frecke and holmes and for what its worth i always felt holmes was the better player.

however he is more of a ‘shot stopper’ and not a ‘goalkeeper’ and as we all know every club wants goalkeepers to be able to play out now (which isnt a stong point of holmes)

holmes made just as many mistakes as frecke when he was on the pitch, but he had other characteristics (eg leadership) that would’ve made him a better choice.

frecke is not going to improve at 26 – brissy need to find a new GK asap

*ibusuki – if you remember correctly i confirmed every single adelaide player (including bility) that brissy would be signing, this list also had ibusuki.

brissy only lost out on that deal because western offered $200k more a season. His signing would’ve made brissy ‘interesting’ especially after zadkovich explained how he wanted his side to play

as we discussed last year when i broke the news of halloran returning home (well before it happened)

he’s still a very good a league level player who should be able to reach several goals and several assists in a side (no offence) that is not very good.

i still stay in regular contact with him(i sent him a message after that match yesterday and he got back to earlier this morning) – bens well aware of the criticism he has received from brissy fans (he doesnt need me to tell him that, he does glance at the clubs socials and has also been known to frequent on here)

its unfortunate what happened to ben last year in adelaide, as he made it clear that he was happy to retire here – but that performance yesterday showed what he is capable of doing.

he’ll be a big help in that dressing room (which still has a couple of players in it, that caused issues with some of the younger players and moon)

you’ve gotta let the adelaide hate go, the only team that is overall hated in this league is sydney and thats because they have the most money, they’ve bought titles, have the countries most arrogant fans and continually have been on the end of refereeing ‘decisions’ for years

5 games in 14 days? where 4 of them, the players actually did not have to board a plane and travel interstate/nz? haha must be tough for the NSW clubs

sydney fans need to be asking more pressing questions towards the ownership, like why does a squad that pays the following players these wages weekly perform so badly?

lolley – 30k + perfomance bonuses with goals/assists/wins
costa – 30k + perfomance bonuses with goals/assists/wins
sena – 15k
klimala – 15k + perfomance bonuses with goals/assists/wins
caceres – 10k

did you want me to put up some brissy wages or the side who’s currently top wages for comparison? (ibusuki was the best paid player at adelaide last season and he wasn’t even earning $10K)

*how about how much money sydney are losing at home this season? – membership touching 20,000 but are only averaging 14k (lose the wanderers match from the total and the average goes down to 7/8k for the season. – how about the ownership trys to work out that problem.?

*talay – was always going to end up in heartbreak for sydney, he’s a fine coach tactically (always has been, always will be) but when it comes to changing things around in terms of formations/substitutions and playing players in there natural positions – these have never been a strong point.

Would love borello to return home to finish his career (and be on the wing opposite goodwin) but hes still under contract and his wage would easily make him the clubs highest earner.

Hes just one of many players who does not look confrotable in stajs system

you do realise adelaide have played the leasr amount of home games in the league this season ?

while sydney have played the equal least amount of away (interstate matches) in the league currently?

same amount of matches as auckland – who the apl designed a fixture list to make sure they qualify for the finals by loading up the first half of the draw with home matches (now that the’ve started travelling, they’re going to be found out as pretenders

city are only so high on the ladder also due to fixturing (only been interstate 4 times this season)

until the league actually get the scheduling right (h/a/h/a) in terms of in your own state, next match interstate) – the league will continue to be mocked

might be the week when the bookies start paying out on the minor premiership IF and i repeat IF adelaide can pick up 2 home wins against direct title rivals (& will still have a game in hand on several sides at the end of this round as well)

tranining has been intense this past week, with several ‘interesting’ names also taking part:

*nestor irakunda had been training prior to his return to europe after the winter break

*the boys in the US/Canada have all been here for a couple weeks keeping match sharp – lachlan brook, pacifique niyongabire and gisueepe bovalina

*awer mabil has looked incredibly sharp (after some bad injuries) – he’ll have no problem getting a gig in europe for the remainder of the season with how hes been in training

*feyzo kasumović, malual nichola, and amlani tatu are all now officially training with the side.
bailey o’neil (who youve heard me mention on here a lot, as he’ll be the next indigenous player to make it in the aleague) is training individually while trying to overcome the persistent stress fractures that have not seen him debut yet (but is part of team talks with the squad)

*panashe madana could be done for the season – grade 3 hamstring tear right off the bone which hes had surgery for (12 week recovery)

*i would not expect any incomings this window, there is the possibillity of outgoings though (tunnicliffe)

*in terms of next season craig goodwin is the #1 transfer target (as ive previously mentioned) both club and player want this happen – barring something outrageous happening, this deal has already been verbally agreed to, just not signed yet.

*marcus younis is being linked again for next season (after adelaide somehow missed out on him last year) faber and veart (and me lol) are all huge fans of the player – would not be surpried to see a ‘mutual termination” pf contract once he gets back from the PSV loan.

*another prodigal son in the form of ben garrucio returning home has also been discussed, hes off contract at season end and open to returning home to adelaide to finish his career – his cousin joey is expected to be star played in the adelaide united SA NPL side this upcoming seaon.

not all, hiroshi will always score goals – if you play to his strengths.

the reason he left adelaide was not due to finances, adelaide were more than willing to meet what his agent wants – veart’s issue was always his conversion rate.

time after time with adelaide he missed absolute sitters, that you would put your house on him scoring (let alone the many where he couldnt adjust his body in time, but when youre that tall and gangly it happens)

no hard feelings from anyone at adelaide.

adelaides happy, westerns happy and mainly hiroshi is happy

youre normally on the money with majority of your posts, but this one would be a definite no from me.

on paper this looke great for actual developement clubs (adelaide, mariners and brissy – but it has the potential to really hurt these clubs.

as mentioned by the poser below, this would allow any of the big 4 who have consistently got around the cap (sydney, victory, wanderers and inparticular city to stockpile talent)

one of the reasons why city are hated by adelaide is when petrillo left he took the cream of the crop of young teenage talent with him – 20+ players in a 24 month period including mauk, gauci, dukuly, bernado, gomulka.

the issue was all these players were given various financial incentives in and around the cap. I’ve spoken abut bernado on here plenty – he was given a higher wage, his dad was also given a car as well as job with the club.

all these players should’ve gone through the traditional south australian developement pathway – sa npl juniors, sa ntc, sa npl reserves, sa npl, adelaide united.

they didnt and that has always been a huge issue of mine, but then again theres also coaches who simply dont fancy the player and no amount of data will change that.

armiento, koutroumbis, kamsoba, h billity, m billity, deng, tonyik, piol etc all fell in that category and had to pay there own way to go interstate and make it as professional player.

now you have clubs (namely the mariners) who exclusively shop for african talent in adelaide – they trial several south australians players every year.

ask wanderers fans how they feel about losing over 20+ to the mariners in a 3 year period? (yes some of that is down to coaching, but again majoirty of these players have since shown they are capable professional players)

transfer fee are a must and FIFA should also look at changing the rules when it comes to underage players and compensation.

people always look to europe for inspiration, but if australias trajectory keeps on heading upwards and the salary cap is abolished and we look at profit and sustainabillity rules – youre going to see clubs like mariners, jets, brissy, adelaide, wellington selling their best 18 year old player to say for arguments sake melb city for $90k to avoid points deduction (if we ever get a relegation system in place, it will be disasterous

its a vicious circle