Squad speculation thread 2020/21

I know we still have the ACL to come but there is probably going to be some squad movement between now and the start of that ACL mini tournament, assuming it goes ahead. So with the domestic season done and dusted, we probably need a new squad thread.

Am I right in saying McGowan will be going back to the UK to be with his family? Should we look to play Flottman in his place in the ACL then?

Edit: Credit to @Clovis for this contract list:

CONTRACTED FOR 2021/22

#1) Andrew Redmayne
#7) Michael Zullo
#8) Paulo Retre
#10) Milos Ninkovic
#12) Trent Buhagiar
#25) Joel King
#23) Rhyan Grant
#26) Luke Brattan
#31) Luke Ivanovic

CONTRACTED FOR 2020/21

#2) Patrick Flottmann
#3) Ben Warland
#4) Alex Wilkinson
#5) Alexander Baumjohann
#6) Ryan McGowan
#11) Kosta Barbarouses
#17) Anthony Caceres
#19) Chris Zuvela
#30) Tom Heward-Belle

POSSIBLY DEPARTING

#9) Adam (Alfie) Le Fondre

DEFINITELY LEAVING

#24) Marco Tilio

Last Edited: 7 September 2020

Or Warland? But why assume McGowan won’t come back? Seems really happy here.

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I think he’ll come back. He’s contracted till 2021. Think it’ll be more about getting his family over here if anything

Our biggest issue is going to be finding a striker to replace Alfie if he end up moving. Especially with border restrictions still in place…

Our whole system relies on a proper finisher with Ninko, ABJ and Brattan playing them in. Without Alfie I could see us becoming very easy to stop scoring.

Do we place faith in Kosta and the young players?

I guess so much is going to come down to if there is any adjustment in the cap

I think its more he’ll want to spend some time with his wife and newborn child who are still based in Scotland so he might want to skip out on the ACL tournament and be back for next season and you can totally understand that from him.

Kosta and Trent strike force would be easy to stop. Sit back in a narrow, compact block. Take their pace out of the game and let us put cross after cross in. Alfie was such a natural finisher he could play through.

I thought I heard or read something with McGowan saying the family will be out here next season. Not sure if they will be for the ACL though.

I’d think that given the ACL is resuming after we had such a poor start, a fair few senior players may be given dispensation for a rest, and more significantly to avoid having to spend a month or more away and then back in quarantine.

Yeah I doubt we will take it too seriously. We’re going to be massively out of form and probably not in pre season yet.

that’s if the players are allowed to leave…

I can’t see the club going easy on the ACL.

We are not out of contention yet, a hub system will work for us by nullifying the repeated disadvantages we face due to long air trips across hemispheres and seasons, and … we are Sydney, the famous FC …

Imagine if we Steven Bradbury’d the ACL, and picked up a third bit of silverware…

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Can we do this at BankWest as well?

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Teams have been doing this ever since we moved to a more counter-attacking style and it has worked pretty well at times even with ALF.

Tilio has confirmed that he’s left

Posted this bad boy a month ago :sunglasses:

Alfies in England, and has just bought a new car.

Sunderland?

It worked for Dwight Yorke.

A search of Alf on Google reveals that he currently plays for Mumbai