Squad Speculation Thread 2018/19

The Cove
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Speculatorrrs! Mount up. Men’s first team squad as of 3rd October:

1 Australia GK Andrew Redmayne
2 Australia DF Aaron Calver
3 Australia DF Ben Warland
4 Australia DF Alex Wilkinson (Vice-Captain)
5 Netherlands DF Jop van der Linden
6 Australia MF Joshua Brillante
7 Australia DF Michael Zullo
8 Australia MF Paulo Retre
9 England FW Adam le Fondre
10 Serbia MF Miloš Ninković
11 Australia MF Daniel De Silva (On loan from Central Coast Mariners)
12 Australia FW Trent Buhagiar
13 Australia MF Brandon O’Neill
14 Australia MF Alex Brosque (Captain)
19 Australia FW Chris Zuvela (Youth)
20 Australia GK Alex Cisak
21 Australia FW Charles Lokolingoy (Youth)
22 Netherlands MF Siem de Jong (On loan from AFC Ajax)
23 Australia DF Rhyan Grant
24 Australia MF Cameron Devlin (Youth)
25 Australia MF Joel King (Youth)
TBC Australia MF Jerry Skotadis (Youth)
TBC Australia MF Ryan Teague (Youth)
TBC Australia FW Marco Tilio (Youth)
30 Australia GK Tom Heward-Belle (Youth)

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Is the club looking at any injury replacement for Buhagiar and Zuvela? Both are noted as ‘indefinite’ as to their unavailability.

With De Silva still unavailable for at least another week we’re looking very thin off the bench for our attacking midfielders.

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https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/sydney-fc-start-search-for-a-forward_1

This article by SBS says that we are looking for a forward

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Excellent Warren G reference.

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The big problem is Buhagiar isn’t on much. I can’t imagine his wage plus left over cap would result in a visa player coming in. WSW has stockpiled all of the young, quick Australian wingers (Kamau, Fitzgerald etc) and not all have got much pre-season game time. Maybe one will push for a release but I’m expecting no better than an NPL player.

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I agree with Eddie, although I know that the club were looking at bringing in a player in the Jan transfer window so they would have put aside enough in the cap to bring in someone fairly decent. That’s obviously one of the reasons why they have saved a visa spot (limited talent pool to pick up a player in Jan). Not sure they would have been after a forward though. Given that we may be a few players short during the Asian Cup in Jan, and also have an ACL campaign to contend with, the idea would be that the player would add to the squad to play in A League games while others are contributing to ACL games.

I’d say that they would just bring that search a forward to find a visa player who they can start sooner. The obvious benefit to picking up a player Jan instead of now is bang for buck - they get paid more per game while we spend the same amount of money - but if you combine what Buhagiar was on with the money that they had set aside for a Jan-May contract player it probably works out to be similar. I wouldn’t be expecting anyone too flashy though.

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IMG_20181018_173455

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@sinjin - bring him back for the chant alone!

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Something that came up today that I didn’t know the answer to, what happened to old man Carney? Is he not retired and uncontracted? I couldn’t get a clear answer.

I swear the last I heard of him was that he was in Las Vegas on an end of season trip.

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I seem to remember at the time that he was open to a “new adventure” (ie - a stint in Thailand) but I think he was functionally done with Australian football.

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Couldn’t agree more; would love to see him back !

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Pretty sure Bruce Djite is still without a club since his spells in Korea and Indonesia. While he no longer is the feared striker he once was, should we keep him away from injury he would be a big upgrade on Charles. It is a big shame to see Trent injured, while I was excited to see Siem and ALF, his flair along with his pre-season form made me feel as if he was the next (and maybe better than) Ibini.

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Carneys probably not needed because hes a slow over 30 left footed attacker and we have a few of those. Need someone with a bit of pace to replace Trent. We do have a visa spot to use and I hear the Mariners are trialling some guy whos pretty fast.

Djite also could maybe be cover for Alf but hes not too useful for our squad.

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I remember always hating coming up against Adelaide because I feel like he had a really good scoring record against us. A really talented striker on his day. I’m not sure he is quick enough for us though.

No one in the NPL who would take the job springs to mind either. What’s Mitch Mallia up to these days? He was okay at Perth and good at NPL level.

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Mallias at Blacktown follow the Glory stint. Hes was also called up to the Maltese national team in March but didnt get a cap.

Also remember seeing an SMH article about Danning dreaming of an A-League return: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/canberra-fc-striker-kofi-danning-hasn-t-given-up-on-a-league-return-20180510-p4zeht.html

Both are probably about as good as we could get for a Buhagier replacement

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Yeah. I remember a time when you could spend as much money as you want on an uninjury replacement.

Those were the days.

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I’d wager we give Devlin and Charlie time to prove their worth, then if needed look at NPL for someone. Was impressed by Sekiya and Avondale’s wingers during the FFA Cup.

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On the topic of youth players, there was an interview with Joel King in the Mercury this week:

He sounds like he is genuinely thrilled just to be involved and has set some realistic goals for the season.

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Sydney United confirmed the signing of Gallegos, ruling out the possibility of our ex-trialist coming in as an injury replacement for Trent Buhagiar.

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Was that ever the case?

The point I was making is that Buhagiar had become a crucial part of the team, worth far more than what we’re paying him, so the amount we have to replace him will not be enough to find a like for like replacement. Couple that with the sliding A$ and the best we can hope for at this stage is an NPL player.