Right you are, fixed
That was only pursuing him, nothing official.
Agreed. While I’m sure something will come about, neither confirmation of the extension, nor its length have as yet been forthcoming.
My mistake, and wishful thinking. I will add an asterisk to the Mullet’s entry.
Reza has declared himself a Nando’s fan, bold move.
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He’s dead to me.
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Has he announced a beetroot preference yet?
Somebody drive the guy out to Petersham. We need to check his cred on the local Portuguese poultry scene.
It would be amazing to get O’Neill for another contract extension but I don’t see it happening. More likely he will go overseas to test himself and push for a Socceroos spot. Ditto Rhyan Grant, who basically has the RB Socceroo spot to lose now.
Brillante should get offered another deal. I know he hasn’t been as good for us the last year and a bit but he’s usually more than good enough for A-League level. I doubt he’ll be going overseas any time soon.
Jury is out on Brosque. He’s had some really good games this season and if he wants to play another year, he should. But he shouldn’t be a regular in the matchday squad next season if he does. We should be looking to fill our options up front with younger, fitter players.
As for the squaddies/younger players, I’d be getting Tratt, Zuvela and Ivanovic to sign as soon as possible. There may be something in Devlin but I haven’t been hugely convinced yet. Might be a player that finds more game time with an expansion club. I have absolutely no idea about Joel King. Someone else can probably tell more about him than I can.
As for the loanies, its obviously way too early to talk about Gucci but I think he’s shown in the past to have a lot of quality so if we can nab him permanently it may well be a coup, but he has to show his worth here first. Caceres might be decent and has utility value, but I wouldn’t want to be spending a heap on him or he might as well just play somewhere else. A big no to De Jong (crocked) and De Silva (underperforming/not good enough) for next season, please.
Van der Linden and Cisak shouldn’t be retained. Jop has been usurped as the left-footed CB by Warland (who additionally is a local option as opposed to a foreigner) and we should really just be giving Heward-Belle the backup keeper role unless he is really worse than Cisak, which I find hard to believe. At least Heward-Belle is younger and has more scope for improvement. Cisak won’t improve much, especially if he’s been having the fitness problems some have claimed.
Also it seems that Mitch Austin is not on the above list of contracted players. I probably wouldn’t retain him either but he should be a decent pacy option off the bench. Just have to give him some time to get on the same page as his team-mates.
I rate him as someone who in a couple of years could at least be solid at this level. I’d say for the little it is going to cost us, it’s probably worth locking down a decent young left back for a couple of seasons.
Pretty much agree on the rest of your assessments. Extending Heward-Belle almost certainly indicates that Cisak is going.
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Rhyan Grant going overseas may not be the foregone conclusion people are expecting it to be. According to transfermarkt he doesn’t have UK or EU nationality unlike O’Neill & Brillante so unless he goes to Asia, highly unlikely in my reckoning, his overseas options are very limited.
Given the NT’s shit ranking (41 in Dec) he needs to have played in at least 75% of the matches over the last 2 years to qualify for a UK work permit and he’s nowhere near that. As he hadn’t been capped pre-injury and Josh Risdon was starting ahead of him at the Asian Cup prior to getting injured it’s hard to see any appeal due to him being injured being successful.
According to everything I could find on the matter, there is no EU wide standard similar to this. Each country is left to enforce their own immigration laws so it’s hard to gauge for which countries he would or wouldn’t qualify for a working visa.
It’s for this reason I think he will sign a contract extension before O’Neill & Brillante even if only for 12 months. I don’t think the club would stand in the way of any move that may materialise and he has the security in case the right deal doesn’t come along. The club will receive a transfer fee but due to the length of his contract it wouldn’t put too many clubs off. If past transfers are any guide I would be thinking it would contain a high sell-on % in lieu of upfront cost as well.
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would be easy enough for Grant to go to one of the smaller euro leagues, they have pretty loose work permit laws.
surely brosque is being lined up for a transition to Player/Coach then Coach deal over the next couple of years.
For sure there will be some countries he will be able to get a work permit in, but he is severely hampered compared to the other 2 likely overseas departures.
He’s at an age where he shouldn’t make a sideways move. Unless it’s a 2nd tier league (Belgium, Netherlands etc) that he’s going to he’s better off sticking it out here for 1 more season, achieve the 75% and then move with all options on the table.
This might be wishful thinking by me, but I get the impression Grant is pretty happy playing for us. I can honestly see him staying at Sydney FC long term and just racking up the appearances.
Let’s face it, he’s next to no chance with Euro ladies with that haircut. As least here he’s always got Panthers at Penrith to clean up.
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Depends, he would be a hit in some Eastern European countries 
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And those all have a bloke deficit. There’d be mullet genes spreading through the steppe like Genghis Khan’s.
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When combined with the massive plastic cans, the place would be indistinguishable from the Riff…
Rhyan grant has signed a new 3 year deal
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Oh fuck yeah.