My gut feeling is that these bunch of kids won’t be a success story and I don’t really want them filling in gaps during the season and that looking for potential elsewhere won’t hurt. I am including king in this but I know Talay will start him all season
Firstly, most of those players will be coming off the bench and when doing so, will be playing with way more experienced players. It’s different playing a very young player in a team of experienced and seasoned players vs playing a whole bunch of young players.
Secondly, we don’t have infinite money. The club has very much looked like they’re partially using youth as a way to balance out the wage budget. Yes there’s an actual cap, but you need to take into account how much the owners are willing to spend as well
Better to find out their level now than during the league proper. The cup is a reasonable middle ground for them. And they are all in the main very young. They have scope to improve. Hollman looked pretty lost early on last season, was shown faith, and grew into his spot. Same for JCP.
You also need to remember that a lot of NPL players are making good coin whilst working… who is to say they want to give that away to be a bit part player in an aleague squad for a year or two
I expect that Talay will be more judicious in the league season for only starting players who are ready, unless there are no other options due to injury, suspension, etc. I’m pretty sure the club wants to work to getting an ACL Elite spot rather than ACL2. It means there’s no room in the starting line-up for guys like Amanatidis who has been given heaps of chances off the bench and done nothing at all (yet) to justify a start in the league.
Good point about money. The minimum salary for ALM is pitifully low. An NPL player with a second job would be earning well above that minimum salary, which is probably what a lot of ALM clubs would expect an NPL player to do on their first deal at least, while they figure out if stepping up to full-time training works out.
One other thing I failed to realise. Scarcella is only on loan to the Jets. So he could well be a squad or even starting option for us in 2025/26, depending on how he goes this season.
Yep that one. You know the one that’s probably lost double that bankrolling our club. Because he’s also planning on sinking every single sent he owns into the club because apparently football supporters expect that