I don’t quite buy the “it’s not my squad” excuse in the HAL. There’s a salary cap and talent is reasonably well distributed as is, good managers are able to get the most out of what they have and Babbel hasn’t even come close to doing that.
The only “Gombau signings” he was lumped with were Tongyik, Kamau and Fitzgerald. All 3 are proven, decent HAL players under 25, they wouldn’t have been short of offers. He’s got fuck all contribution out of them and Tongyik has since been moved on (his last game was R2 @ SCG).
Riera has gone markedly backwards despite having a shit hot #10 behind him to create, I don’t think there’s any doubt Baumjohann is a huge improvement on Cejudo. Vedran has gone to shit though that’s possibly more linked to losing Kalac, as has captain Hamill.
He may have had one burned foreign spot out of his control on the Roly poly one, but he’s continued to play him higher when they have an abundance of wingers. Meanwhile he alienated the better Baccus leaving them with Junior & O’ Doherty as the weakest CM pairing in the comp. They just get slayed in the middle of the park every week.
He may also have been hamstrung by having a plank like Hamill on the books, but he still saw fit to make him club captain so it’s not like he didn’t rate him through pre-season. It was also clearly evidenced against Perth, the bulk of their issues are organisational over and above just personnel.
I never could work out how his career trajectory went from B2 promotion to CL qualification to Lucerne to here after half a “gap year”. His exit there was never addressed when he arrived here, but in his 3rd season they entered the winter break 9th in a 10 team league and he’d publicly criticised the club and said he wouldn’t renew his contract. So they fucked him off 6 months early and went on to finish 3rd, with the guy who replaced him being poached by champions Young Boys at seasons end.
Maybe he’s just not very good and is living off his reputation as a player?
Wanderers fans who want to complain about refereeing decisions should be forced to promise to never mention the ACL that came thanks to some horrendously bad calls. With the amount of mileage they’ve got out of that, they’re still due at least another few seasons of A-League refereeing/VAR before we can call it even.
Not to mention the Premiership that came courtesy of a different set of rules for them RE: foreign spots.
Pretty much every success they had under Poppa was based around the cynical foul on halfway. It’s hilarious every derby when they bang on about Branners and Joshy supposedly getting away with murder, never any recognition of the absolute butchers like Poljak, La Rocca, Polenz & Dimas that they had during their honeymoon period.
I used to get so frustrated watching Polenz get away with murder every round. One of my favourite derby moments was when he was stupid enough to catch the ball in the box to stop the play for an apparent handball against us. I couldn’t stop laughing
The older Baccus is also looking consistently solid for a coach that is proven to absolutely not take any shit from his players. A change always helps, but he doesnt have an apparent attitude problem anymore.
Babbel EL Brooke has endorsed Snakeman as Number 1 keeper @ NorthWest Sydnee.
I suppose with 3.5 seasons still on his contract,he cant tell it like it is.
Throw in the mill they wasted on Pio and 1.3 this year on Riera,they have to rate as the poorest decision makers in player recruitment.
In their “hope” thread I note a few people saying they haven’t signed off on the agreement for the new stadium yet. I pray for a monumental snag to complete their misery.
Yeah, it took ages for The Eels to sign their agreement too. Apparently the rental has gone up by a ridiculous amount. I’m sure Wests will be having the same battles. Eels managed to negotiate a little bit but it’s still a great deal more. Pretty hard to negotiate when it’s absolutely clear that there’s no real alternative.
