with the smoke still kinda settling from the 2009/10 season hopefully i'm not jumping in too early - but this seems like a decent enough moment in time to click over into the new thread:
Fowler to Sydney, Gold Coast to fold
EXCLUSIVE
ROBBIE FOWLER will be Sydney FC's new marquee player.
Three years after he almost joined the Sky Blues before his wife, Kerrie, decided she wasn't ready to live in Australia, the former Liverpool legend will finally get his wish to live in the Harbour City. Fowler, 34, has become available in the wake of North Queensland Fury's recent near-death experience, with the Townsville club no longer in a position to meet his wages, believed to be about $750,000 per season.
But while the Fury have been saved by Football Federation Australia's intervention, the A-League is still set to lose a club, with Gold Coast United backer, mining magnate Clive Palmer, officially withdrawing his support this week. Unlike in Townsville, the FFA has little interest in mounting a rescue operation, with the competition now likely to remain a 10-team league with newcomers Melbourne Heart effectively taking the place of Gold Coast United next season.
Sydney FC yesterday officially approached Fowler to replace John Aloisi as their new marquee player. Currently in England, where he has been attending coaching courses, Fowler last week made it clear he wanted to keep playing in the A-League regardless of the outcome of his situation with North Queensland Fury.
''I loved it there, it was brilliant,'' he told the Herald. ''It wasn't just Townsville, it was Australia.'' In the past two days, Fowler has been talking with the Fury through newly-appointed football director Robbie Middleby, having indicated at one stage his interest in becoming player-coach following the departure of Ian Ferguson to Perth Glory. But that scenario has effectively been ruled out by the FFA, who at the moment are the Fury's majority owners, and Fowler is now set to accept Sydney FC's offer.
When Fowler came to town last season, the Sky Blues drew their second-biggest home crowd, with most of the pre-game promotion driven through the local branch of the Liverpool Supporter's Club. Sydney FC officials have made no secret of their focus of improving attendances, and Fowler's proven popularity has prompted their offer.
Fowler had been targeted initially by Newcastle Jets, but owner Con Constantine said yesterday: ''We've moved on from the marquee idea, we tried it three times and for whatever reason it didn't happen. We've decided to leave well alone.''
Fowler will be the biggest-name departure from North Queensland as the FFA deals with the fallout of the recent crisis, but he won't be the only one. The Fury officially had 17 players contracted for next season, but the change of ownership has left them free to negotiate elsewhere. Defender Chris Tadrosse is believed to have accepted an offer from Melbourne Heart, midfielder Michael Marrone has rejected terms, and defender Scott Wilson is set to return to Scotland.
It is understood goalkeeper Paul Henderson and defender Jacob Timpano have been released, and a further nine players have agreed terms without signing, among them David Williams and Dyron Daal.
so back to the same old Sydney... washed up star to try to get the vapid fans to come through the gates.
pity about these guys:
''But while the Fury have been saved by Football Federation Australia's intervention, the A-League is still set to lose a club, with Gold Coast United backer, mining magnate Clive Palmer, officially withdrawing his support this week. Unlike in Townsville, the FFA has little interest in mounting a rescue operation, with the competition now likely to remain a 10-team league with newcomers Melbourne Heart effectively taking the place of Gold Coast United next season.''
gcu was being dicked around by palmer from the beginning.
bit of a shame.
not sure how they'll get back to the 12 teams they wanted now.
Canberra ftw!
To be honest, the gold coast franchise was always going to fail, there really isn't enough room in south east queensland for more than one team, all gold coast did was obliterate Brisbanes crowds. It will be interesting to see how heart and rovers go over the next few years.
For mine this targetting of the 'best' regions rather than the 'best' bids is the problem, they were desperate to get a team in gold coast so accepted a fat fool with money and it bit them on the arse. Better to have worked with Ivan Slavic from Canberra from the outset when he was clearly more interested in building a grassroots supporter base than anyone, but they fucked that in the eye by giving the 12th spot to rovers just because they desperately wanted a west sydney team regardless of how well/poorly it was put together.
Smeltz to melbourne apparently.
SHEEP SHAGGER
er, by melbourne, I mean victory.
Crazy day, with Fraser stepping down as well.
Cockerill continues to lose what little credibility he had. Gold Coast aren't on the brink of extinction like his story made out overnight. Football in this country has enough problems in dealing with a hostile News Limited with vested interests in seeing our sport fail to grow, without the likes of Cockerill and Fairfax as a whole making shit up that damages the reputation of the league as well.
Heart to take on all the disillusioned Melbourne Storm supporters!
Fixtures!
Happy with most of the Heart home game times. Consider me signed up for membership.
good to see FFA has worked out that the best time for the Melbourne derby is the week after the AFL GF.
Tix will be hard to come across.
A lot of seemingly poor aspects though. Gold Coast get their opening game against the Roar at home this time but not much room to build momentum from there with TWO byes and an away game against the Phoenix within the next four weeks.
I can't imagine the double header at the SFS working very well.
And surely the two Melbourne teams should have had their AFL grand final weekend fixtures on the Friday or Sunday
also, the Melbourne vs CCM game is back to NYE.
might actually try to go to this years one...
nah, kaz. GF takes too much out of melbourne. hangovers, and party preps. no time for a-league.
I don't mean having a either game in Melbourne. Just having them both immediately following the GF on the Saturday writes off virtually all mainstream media coverage. They'll be lucky to get two lines about both matches in the Sunday papers. I guess some GF watchers at pubs will stick around drinking and catch Roar v Heart
Kevin Vincent Muscat will be there. Not inclined to hang them up just yet it seems.
CCM sign Argentine Patricio Perez on a 2 year deal
Oh I forgot about this competition existing. Looking forward to seeing World Cup stars Mark Paston and Tony Lochhead IN THE FLESH
don't forget shane smeltz!
Him and Bertos actually play well in the A-League though. To see a player of Lochhead's errrr limited qualities get wraps was hilarious and great.
Bahaha
Vukovic signs with Turkish club Konyaspor
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errrr, anyone who supports australian football i would say. given that without mr mandic, young 'arry would have been at bristol city rather than leeds. that would have been dire for his development, and thus for his contribution to the socceroos....
Watching the replay last night, there should have been a foul/card before Roar's last corner
But the refs were very light handed anyway.
There should have been a lot of fouls given. Matthew Breeze was being pretty lenient throughout the game.
Graham Arnold can't really attribute the loss to a penalty that wasn't given, Paartulu was left unmarked at that corner by some pretty poor defending.
thanks for clarifying the somewhat vague connection, sorry.
in saying that - this is an A-League thread, and no disrespect to 'Arry, but when it comes to the A-League - since when does anyone really give a fuck about Harry Kewell? he's an international superstar, man.
the ongoing Graham Arnold hate runs deep among the shouting mob, doesn't it? and while others (like Ange) now seem entitled to some sort of Aussie-sporting-hero redemption, Arnie seems doomed to be forever remembered for his failures because - oops - he doesn't get along with our precious superstar 'Arry and/or his manager.
Arnie's just as much a success/fuckup as the rest of us ordinary people, so let it go, man :)
the reason people don't like arnie has nothing to do with his fuckups.
it has to do with the fact he only gets the jobs he does because of the old boys network which still predominates in australia.
(rolls eyes) ok - so you really don't think he's achieved anything of any merit this season?
(one could also argue Ange is part of the old boy's network too, right?)
I really admire what Ange has done this year. I'm disappointed as a CCM fan for the weekend's result, but I'm hugely excited as a fan of Australian overall because the league as a whole has had to try to step up to the level that Brisbane have created for themselves. and by sheer virtue of being dragged along by the Roar's wake, CCM have managed to snag an ACL spot too, which is cool.
to be fair though, and not to take away from Ange's success by any means - he did actually have quite a head start on Arnie. He was an unfancied successor to Farina in the middle/tail-end of last season, and had a chance to clear out the dead wood, lose a ton of games blooding a lot of youngsters (effectively removing the Roar from everyone's radar in the process), and he had an entire off-season to prepare.
In contrast CCM fired/moved Lawrie McKinna upstairs, and appointed Arnie - however he was in South Africa until 8 or 10 days before the first (pre-season?) game. this was the club's decision obviously, and I'm not making excuses for the guy or the club. it was their decision to start the season so ill-prepared - still, I don't think they did too badly, all things considered.
anyway. just saying...i could go on & on about how Bris/Syd/Melb/Ade etc are all major cities, while in the scheme of things Gosford barely qualifies as an average-sized Sydney suburb & therefore struggles to attract top talent yadda yadda yadda...but of course I won't :)
Yeah, fair play to CCM, they were fantastic this year - their results would probably have won them the league most other seasons. Arnie has brought through some exciting young talent and developed a very well-drilled side. I reckon they'll do okay in the ACL (assuming the side in 12 months looks anything like the current team).
There's the potential for a pretty exciting league next year - surely Sydney and Melbourne Victory will improve on their performances this year, Adelaide will probably still be up there and, providing they don't go tits up in the meantime, the Gold Coast will do okay again. The standard's just going to keep improving.
also - did I mention the ref/s failed to spot that Theoklitos was off his line for both his penalty saves?
bitterness #sourgrapes #letitgoman
wow - look at that formatting. sorry kids. watch out for those hashtags!
interesting.
doesn't look any different?
Just a little bit.
I like the AUFC one.
Marrone gets a shot with QPR Michael Lynch
I heard of QPR before I start, sort of, following football, because....
impressive effort if he can get signed. They've been playing some really good football this season.
Perez is already going back home to Argentina
that's gonna hurt.
please let the Roy-Keane-to-manage-Victory rumors be true
hahaha - me too
oops hang on a sec - are you saying this as a Victory fan or as a Victory hater? :)
Roy Keane coaching the Victory will make them the most hated team in world football. More hated than Chelsea.
I want it to happen.
as a fan of football in general