Squad Development 2024/25

[matty]

1 hour ago, Unlimited said:

I just played a game of FIFA 25

WSW v ESFC

• Jeong got beat for pace in the 2nd minute but Kucharski couldn't score
• Rhyan Grant got a red card in the 8th minute for taking down Milanovic when clean through on goal
• Got a penalty in the 10th minute for handball - scored
• Import striker (Antonsson replacement, https://sofifa.com/player/221293/guillermo-martinez/250002?hl=en-US) scored in the 28th and 40th
• Jeong then conceded a penalty before half time, which unfortunately ESFC scored
• Sapsford scored in the early second half
• Won penalties in the 81st, 82nd, and 83rd minute of the game for handball - eventually scored from the fourth penalty in the 84th
• Lolley scored a fluke outside the box beating Thomas in stoppage time

I won 5-2

 

Anyway, Jeong got a good match rating because he won a lot of headers and tackles - even though he got skinned in the 2nd minute and conceded the penalty. He is an integral part of the team!

Sounds like that game is as realistic as ever /s

Fifa 99 4lyf

[bozwanderer]

7 hours ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

We still have a visa signing left. CB or CDM?

Moreso CB. Given the depth at CDM was bolstered with Al-Taay Signing

[Upthehill]

3 hours ago, bozwanderer said:

Moreso CB. Given the depth at CDM was bolstered with Al-Taay Signing

HAS to be a CB. Surely...

We have Brillante (CB requirements dependent), Al-Taay, Mata, Priestman, Pelekanos all playing CM.

Right now we have 1 out and out CB in Bonetig. 

[bozwanderer]

5 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

HAS to be a CB. Surely...

We have Brillante (CB requirements dependent), Al-Taay, Mata, Priestman, Pelekanos all playing CM.

Right now we have 1 out and out CB in Bonetig. 

Most european windows close over weekend 3rd February (early 4th Sydney time), but aleague doesn't close until 12 February.

The club could be looking at a cb currently with a club in europe, waiting to see if the options they have get snapped up by other european clubs and then if not, go with loan deal before our window closes

[StringerBellend]

4 hours ago, Upthehill said:

HAS to be a CB. Surely...

We have Brillante (CB requirements dependent), Al-Taay, Mata, Priestman, Pelekanos all playing CM.

Right now we have 1 out and out CB in Bonetig. 

That we went into the season with only 2 CBs 1 of which had a handful of senior games and the other was a unknown import is crazy 

[Sithslayer1991]

With Lachlan Jackson picked up by Victory the only decent Aussie CB  free agent left is Josh Laws and I am not certain he is what we need in our team. Club either goes visa or stay with what we have. Still a few weeks to go for transfers.

[SBW]

Should have sent Jeong back to Korea and terminate the loan deal after he got injured and sign a replacement foreign CB 

[immortalshogun]

It really seems like the club banked on Degenek joining and now that we’ve missed him, we’re most likely not looking to sign anyone for CB gicen we gave Jeong, Panta, Bonetig and Brillante lol

[bozwanderer]

4 hours ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

With Lachlan Jackson picked up by Victory the only decent Aussie CB  free agent left is Josh Laws and I am not certain he is what we need in our team. Club either goes visa or stay with what we have. Still a few weeks to go for transfers.

European ones close 3rd February their time, ours doesn't close until 12th February.

Still some time, say wsw or any other club go hey is this player potentially available already. EU window closes, then those clubs may go hey no one from europe, maybe we loan to aleague, pay most of the wage, get some of the wages off our books

[Hughesy]

23 hours ago, immortalshogun said:

Nothing will change unless we appoint a director of football or a technical director in my opinion. The clubs around us are making decent coin selling players and we’re falling behind

Our facilities, resources, catchment and fan base rivals most NRL/AFL clubs yet we do **** all with it. What makes anyone think WSW could get benefit from a TD/DOF? 

The club resembles an idiot child who’s inherited a fortune with no clue how to handle it.

A strong figure via a CEO or Manager to come in and simplify everything back to basics with the common goal of success is what’s needed right now. 

[StringerBellend]

24 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

Our facilities, resources, catchment and fan base rivals most NRL/AFL clubs yet we do **** all with it. What makes anyone think WSW could get benefit from a TD/DOF? 

The club resembles an idiot child who’s inherited a fortune with no clue how to handle it.

A strong figure via a CEO or Manager to come in and simplify everything back to basics with the common goal of success is what’s needed right now. 

I think the value of DoF is overstated. Basically the people that appoint the coach appoint the DoF, I have no idea why they would make a better job of appointing the DoF than the Coach. I get that it's supposed to give a club some consistency between managers, but if I look at Everton we just sack the DoF too so it makes no difference.

[Hughesy]

Playing style is dictated by the talent at your disposal. Aleague clubs particularly would be foolish to pigeon hole themselves into a concrete playing style cause we feed off the scraps of the world’s player pool and have to make do with whatever we can get. 

The last several WSW managers have been criticised for not being tactically flexible so the idea we should lock in a signature playing style is contradictory.

[Zelinsky]

1 hour ago, StringerBellend said:

I think the value of DoF is overstated. Basically the people that appoint the coach appoint the DoF, I have no idea why they would make a better job of appointing the DoF than the Coach. I get that it's supposed to give a club some consistency between managers, but if I look at Everton we just sack the DoF too so it makes no difference.

We have a long history of executives being involved in grass roots decisions, and - on paper - managerial people being involved in strategic decision which really are the responsibility of board and CEO. A DoF would address that, and in our case this is long overdue.

That there was a hole in organization became clear when there was no Plan B after Lederer okay-ed the departure of Popa. Worse, Popa was the man who at the time "held" the soul of the club (remember Pride Power West?), and yet contracts were in place which allowed the whole training group to join him (we only didn't lose Foxx because he decided to stay).

I dare say that, with a DoF in charge, the crisis on the eve of S6 would have been handled differently, or avoided altogether. Lederer felt that he was indebted to Popa, a DoF might have had different ideas.

Since then we've had JT doing the hiring for Babbel, then CR taking full control of the football department, and then Rudan having even more power and reporting directly to the chairman, not the CEO any longer. Worked a treat, all of it.

My wish: bring in Merrick, or Arnie even. Someone who knows football in general and the league in particular.

[StringerBellend]

14 minutes ago, Zelinsky said:

We have a long history of executives being involved in grass roots decisions, and - on paper - managerial people being involved in strategic decision which really are the responsibility of board and CEO. A DoF would address that, and in our case this is long overdue.

That there was a hole in organization became clear when there was no Plan B after Lederer okay-ed the departure of Popa. Worse, Popa was the man who at the time "held" the soul of the club (remember Pride Power West?), and yet contracts were in place which allowed the whole training group to join him (we only didn't lose Foxx because he decided to stay).

I dare say that, with a DoF in charge, the crisis on the eve of S6 would have been handled differently, or avoided altogether. Lederer felt that he was indebted to Popa, a DoF might have had different ideas.

Since then we've had JT doing the hiring for Babbel, then CR taking full control of the football department, and then Rudan having even more power and reporting directly to the chairman, not the CEO any longer. Worked a treat, all of it.

My wish: bring in Merrick, or Arnie even. Someone who knows football in general and the league in particular.

It all assumes 

A. They appoint a DoF who isn't a dickhead. Given we have Rudan the keys to the kingdom, we aren't good at appointing non dickheads. 

B. they listen to this non dickhead, which they wouldn't have. 

C. they don't go totally mental 

Basically the DoF is appointed by the same people who appointed  dickheads he's highly likely to be a dickhead

Edited Wednesday at 07:31 AM by StringerBellend

[StringerBellend]

Victory just signed Lachlan Jackson, he's well better than any of our centre Backs. 

[Zelinsky]

Just now, StringerBellend said:

It all assumes 

A. They appoint a DoF who isn't a dickhead. Given we have Rudan the keys to the kingdom, we aren't good at appointing non dickheads. 

B. they listen to this non dickhead, which they wouldn't have. 

C. they don't go totally mental 

We have a new chairman, that counts for something. We would not be the first football club to install someone between team management and GM. And it’s not our problem that you are supporting Everton and imposing your negativity on WSW…

[StringerBellend]

1 minute ago, Zelinsky said:

We have a new chairman, that counts for something. We would not be the first football club to install someone between team management and GM. And it’s not our problem that you are supporting Everton and imposing your negativity on WSW…

WSW were supposed to be my win something feel good team, that worked out well didn't it?

Maybe Staj should DoF? I'm serious here I think he's probably better at the long term building thing than the winning stuff 

[William]

17 hours ago, Upthehill said:

HAS to be a CB. Surely...

We have Brillante (CB requirements dependent), Al-Taay, Mata, Priestman, Pelekanos all playing CM.

Right now we have 1 out and out CB in Bonetig. 

right now we have 1,  next week wookie could be back that gives us 2 and we need a third badly

[immortalshogun]

2 hours ago, Hughesy said:

Our facilities, resources, catchment and fan base rivals most NRL/AFL clubs yet we do **** all with it. What makes anyone think WSW could get benefit from a TD/DOF? 

The club resembles an idiot child who’s inherited a fortune with no clue how to handle it.

A strong figure via a CEO or Manager to come in and simplify everything back to basics with the common goal of success is what’s needed right now. 

Its very clear that this club hasn't had a "strong figure" in the form of a CEO or Manger in a decade. There is no "strong figure" coach that would touch this club with a 10 foot pole. Kisnorbo said no, Montgomery said no, hell even popa said no.

Its no coincidence that a club like Adelaide, with resources/facilities/catchment that is nowhere near ours, has had more success than us both on the field winning trophies and off the field selling players like a production line. They have a TD/DOF and even had one of their TDs become their manager and BEAT us in the grand final and for the premiers plate. Maybe its time to hire someone who'd know what to do with our fortune? I dunno, just seems like that's a solid option to me.

Edited Wednesday at 07:52 AM by immortalshogun

[William]

Can someone explain what the role of Director of football is and skills a potential DOF would need to fulfill the role 

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, William said:

Can someone explain what the role of Director of football is and skills a potential DOF would need to fulfill the role 

The idea is they kind of sit above the manager and define the club's style, principals overall football identity. They work with the club's leadership to select a manager / coach and they are responsible for player recruitment (with the input of the manager).

One of the goals of it is to give consistency so if managers come and go the player recruitment is still building to a common goal and style. 

Basically have a long term plan.

Others on here have a better idea of it than me.

But generally they have a coaching or youth development background.

Lots on here say it's what WSW are lacking. My $0.02 is they are right nobody has taken a strategic view of the football side of the club, which you can see by the chaos of coaches and players coming and going with no real discernable pattern.

Will a DoF footy fix the problem? It would definitely help if the club get the right one and they put the trust in him/her. The miserable bit of me, doesn't trust the club to appoint the right one. If they don't then you end up sacking both a coach and DoF. 

As much as we disagree, I'd hope we'd agree that the lack of any long term thinking is a big part of the mess we are in.

I also think that someone like a Staj (and other who know there footy better than me might disagree) might actually make a good DoF. He's focussed on long term player development and longer term. 

[Sithslayer1991]

Just watched Total A-leagues. Rugari mentioned Alex Grant is now a free agent after leaving his Chinese club. 

Thats a player we need. Very good experienced defender plaued in K-league and CSL. Maybe a last roll of the dice for a CB

[GunnerWanderer]

On 28/1/2025 at 5:55 PM, mack said:

I'm not sure why the club suddenly thinks these same players will turn into a top 4, or even a top 6 side. If they ditch all the foreign & older players off contract and "replacing them with locals and youths" our squad will be even worse than it is now

Yep 👍 perfectly said Mack. 
We could be worse than this year’s roar team if we went with more of our youth.

[mack]

We definitely aren't going to do any better than Grant.

[LetsPele]

2 hours ago, GunnerWanderer said:

Yep 👍 perfectly said Mack. 
We could be worse than this year’s roar team if we went with more of our youth.

We may prove we're worse than this year's Roar team come the weekend... 😎

[Davo]

Grant hasn’t played since July, so based on Gersbach he’ll be ready to start some time in April.

[Upthehill]

1 hour ago, Davo said:

Grant hasn’t played since July, so based on Gersbach he’ll be ready to start some time in April.

I'd be more than happy to sign Grant knowing he wont play for 4-5 weeks as long as its a 3+ year deal. My only concern is he's had a dodgy injury history. The left back issue for us was a huge one, Clisby is so far off the pace of this league defensively, we had to sort it. CB is still a major issue but Bonetig and Wookie arent the worst pairing in the league. 

Gersbach, Bonetig, Grant and Cleur/Foreign RB for next season would be a pretty decent line up. Its not on par with Mrcela/Marcelo days, but it would be a significant improvement on this season

[Sithslayer1991]

Lmao my only info is Alex Grant was pointed out as a potential Socceroo due to his form in Korea prior to the move to China, along with Harrison Delbridge who also plays in Korea.

I had no idea about the injury history in that case I would be cautious.

[Bangaverage]

I’m hearing we are losing a couple of players in this transfer window, not huge losses but still a couple on the move

[immortalshogun]

6 minutes ago, Bangaverage said:

I’m hearing we are losing a couple of players in this transfer window, not huge losses but still a couple on the move

any word on if we’re getting fees or if they’re just moving on a free?