Part of the transfer fee might be the exclusivity of it. By the sound of it Adelaide would have liked him back with their lack of defensive cover, but if we were the only one willing to pay the (hopefully) nominal fee, we are the only one that gets to discuss it with him.
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Yep. Auckland are also short on CB depth with injuries, and same with WSW (although they have a spare visa spot so have a larger pond to fish in).
I know Shaw has returned, but do we know how long his contract is? Hopefully relatively long, which would mean that there would be some good ongoing competition for a starting spot.
No, Shaw is under the āthere has been no club announcementā section. 
Is Shaw here as an āinjury replacementā for Gurd? or is he actually contracted for the season?
I donāt mind the Popovic signing, defenders usually peak in their late twenties so heās got a long way to go and Iāve got a lot of hope that he can learn a bit of stability and composure next to Alex Grant instead of having to be the senior CB next Matthews.
3.5 years was a surprise, but I suspect weāll start seeing more of these kind of deals for players Poppas age so clubs can flip players for transfer fees, overseas clubs seem to be hitting the Australian market more and more.
This has become Adelaideās strategy; they sign young players on modest wages on long contracts with the sell of providing a pathway for them to overseas. It keeps the clubs overall wage bill relatively low and lines them up for getting transfer fees in future. As part of implementing this strategy though, the club has to commit to playing younger squad, but that has become a league-wide trend anyway.
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Popovic will be a Socceroo before this 3.5 year contract ends, you heard it here first.
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As fair as I heard there was an option to buy at the end of the loan. So we would have exclusive rights until we confirmed we didnāt want him.
I like it, we need a cb, heās a cbā¦. Heās not awful and his old teams like himā¦ we can either have a rhyno style long term player or we sell him for a profit
Why the pearl clutching?
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Because this is SFCU, dammit! Iāll be dammed if theres no cup holders included as part of the deal!
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Kristian or Gabriel?
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Hmm hope so but Iām not totally convinced yet. With Matthewās is was pretty obvious at least to my untrained eyes he was heading for a Socceroos call up. Canāt really see it yet with Popa but early days. I hope you are right
I like him, he has mettle.
Bad choice of word for sure. Lets say not contracted. Wasnāt trying to denigrate the fella.
Yeah, I wouldnāt say he chose to leave though, in his own words he said he was let go and devastated at the time, but that it was a blessing in disguise as it made him work harder.
Donāt see it.
Costa to get minutes tonight, Shaw to start. Joel King and A. Grant are ātouch and goā, Popa is still out with OP. Burgess is āin contentionā but ānot too sureā if weāre getting rid of him by Wednesday.
At least Talay knows that Wanderers are gonna do the same thing and park the bus + counter.
Whether he can stop it leading to goals is another thing
So Alex Grant, another defender with āminimal game timeā whoās not ready. Is this another moneyball signing?
who else would you have signed?