There’s daylight between Melbourne Victory and the rest
Columnist By Adrian Musolino, 21 May 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- A-League, Carlos Hernandez, football, Melbourne Victory, Surat Sukha
Melbourne Victory's Billy Celeski challenges Adelaide United's Sasa Ognenovski in the A-League football final match, at the Telstra Dome, in Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
The publication of the A-League team’s ins and outs combined with Melbourne Victory securing the signing of Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez and Thailand international defender Surat Sukha confirms Melbourne Victory as the raging hot favourites for the 2009/10 season.
In an off-season that has seen enormous movement across the league not to mention the increasing player movement to Asia, the Victory has been left relatively untouched.
This is key.
They have stability and should the protracted discussions between the club and Kevin Muscat come to the expected conclusion with the captain agreeing terms then there appears no reason why, based on the squad alone, the Victory shouldn’t walk the A-League season.
But the Muscat signing is critical as the only significant loss for the Victory side is in defence with both Michael Thwaite, Gold Coast United bound, and the controversial Sebastian Ryall who had left for Sydney FC before his alleged sexual misdemeanor came to public light, departing.
It’s credit to the Victory for not only having the bravery to complete what they describe as a ‘significant’ deal for Hernandez but also doing what other A-League clubs should have done long ago, looking to the depth available in Asia and signing a player in the mold of Sukha, 26 years old with international and ACL experience and with the flexibility to play as a defensive midfielder or on the wing.
It is a significant signing to an already grounded squad while the Hernandez deal retains much of the core premiership winning attacking stock.
The irony is the two teams who last season proved to be the biggest threat to the Victory are both in a perilous financial state.
The financial malaise they have found themselves in has impacted Adelaide United and Brisbane Roar, both in the hands of the FFA and on the look out for new owners, and this is reflected in their conservative signings.
Neither has been able to substantially splash out on improving the squad and both will rely on the same core group as last season, the same group who in both cases were unable to contain the Victory on numerous occasions.
Adelaide, for example, looks set to start the season with a squad of just twenty, a questionable decision considering they will embark on another Asian campaign and with the loss of Sasa Ognenovski, much is needed from Iain Fyfe to shore up the back while the Roar will be relying on the continued growth of their promising youth.
Even if the Victory loses Michael Theoklitos to Europe, they had the foresight to nab Glen Moss from the Wellington Phoenix.
It is decisions like that which have marked out the Victory as the best run and operated A-League side by a farmer’s mile.
There is much movement and other change at the rest of the competition, not to mention a cultural change at Sydney FC, and so stability, something they have been renowned for, means Melbourne Victory look handily placed.
With their new stadium taking shape and a new shirt sponsor to boot they are getting all the fundamentals right.
The benchmark of the A-League remains so.
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- Explore:
- A-League, Carlos Hernandez, football, Melbourne Victory, Surat Sukha
May 21st 2009 @ 10:34am
Cpaaa said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:34am | Report comment
Millster i will surely remind you that you said Perth….., hopefully the stripes works for them.
May 21st 2009 @ 10:37am
Millster said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:37am | Report comment
Oh, and I must add, HUGE congrats to the Jets for their ACL achievement last night.
I always get a thrill when an A-League club does ok in this comp, which really is one important way of letting us know what the relative standard is of our league against others in the region.
And without indicating that my heart is anything less than sky blue through-and-through, just as I excitedly followed AU’s progress last year so I will with pride keep a good eye on Newcastle as they continue their adventures.
Good luck boys and thanks for doing us proud.
May 21st 2009 @ 10:43am
Los Oso said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Andrew,
Sydney – on paper – are ‘far stronger’ than MVFC???
Can I have some of what you’re on?
Brosque is way better than Thompson? Corica the best midfielder in the league?
You need to wake up, buddy. And soon.
May 21st 2009 @ 10:44am
Mackey said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:44am | Report comment
I’m glad that the Roar are flying under the radar for most people as far as pre seasopn talk goes. Miller, Van Dijk, Reinaldo and Henrique will all have a full pre-season together this time out so as far as your argument goes for Melbourne and stability, the same pretty much applies to Brisbane this year. Although, I think we will struggle when the world youth cup kicks off and half of our squad is away for weeks on end.
May 21st 2009 @ 10:48am
Andrew said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:48am | Report comment
Well I have seen thompson, perform, or should I say never perform.. The guy is hopeless.. The funny part is he gets picked for Australia and he produces nothing. Brosque is way more talented, his more skillfull and technically a better player.
Name me a better central midfielder than Corica in past seasons of the A-League? He has a proven track record of solid performances.
May 21st 2009 @ 10:57am
Tom said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:57am | Report comment
Andrew, I expect Sydney to do better this season, but as far as I can tell their most experienced defender is Seb Ryall!
Its not a balanced team at this stage. Their midfielders will have to do a lot of covering back to help out the back four if there aren’t substantial additions to the list.
I’m not sure if there’s daylight between MV and the rest, but I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of having a stable list. Lopez, Fabiano and Berger are players Merrick will be wanting to get more out of in 09/10.
May 21st 2009 @ 11:00am
Limpet #38 said | May 21st 2009 @ 11:00am | Report comment
In the A-League, maybe. In Asia, no. The Vics did not even survive the group stages in the ACL, with a negative one goal difference and three losses suffered. In the same season Adelaide went right through to the finals. Finances alone do not make a football club.
May 21st 2009 @ 11:13am
Ryan Steele said | May 21st 2009 @ 11:13am | Report comment
Sydney F.C. or Melbourne Victory the best on paper? Methinks not. If we’re going by a squad on paper, the winner would be Gold Coast United.
Current Socceroos regular Jason Culina, last year’s golden boot winner, Shane Smeltz, current youth Socceroo Tahj Minniecon, Jess Vanstrattan, who was a reserve keeper for Juventus (a reserve for Buffon is good in its own right), and a cast of hand-picked foreign talent.
Big-mouthed owners and coaches aside, the squad does have a strong look about them.
May 21st 2009 @ 11:18am
NUFCMVFC said | May 21st 2009 @ 11:18am | Report comment
Not sure about “shoe in”, there are never shoe ins in a salary capped league and even last season we had a month of away games without a win it has to be remembered which proves everyone has vulnerability depending on circumstances, but we bounced back excellently
Gold Coast look to have a nice squad, and Roar played nice under Bleiberg without scoring, but Smeltz is an excellent finisher. Obviously SFC’s squad is fairly unchanged but they are strong on paper and were touted as the favourites for last seaon and were on top after round 8 if I remember right
Perth should be generally much improved
Although it has to be remembered that Gary Cole has a big hand in the recruiting, and he has done a generally good job. I also consider the membership prices to be of real good value, FFA have lost the plot with respect to the Roar.
Generally speaking though, the MVFC Admin have done a fantastic job, have to remember they were one of the slowest clubs to start up, and had to get the FFA to invest in a stake in the club, didn’t start with a major sponsor either. Now they have just concluded an excellent $1 milion deal with Intralot (which doesen’t even cover the ACL so there are further opportunities) in these economic times which is good work, and they have generally been very cutting edge and more prepated to take risks, ie they were the first to go Brazilian with trio from rio and Fred was excellent value for the league, then Latin American and Hernandez and Lopez are good value and noe first to take the plunge with ASEAN players and I hope Surat is a good success so that it encourages other A League teams to go for SE Asian players
Should they keep Muscat it would mean we would have kept much of the core of our Championship winning team, which is great with respect to the ACL and having a team participate that was similar to the team that actually won the Championship, and hopefully they can do well there. This is good because it is a team that has generally gelled and knows eachother for the most part, which can help with a consistency that can get us over the line in some respects, it is what helped us grind out the results last season and stay near the top or thereabouts although it was generally always a close run thing (llok how close Premiership race was)
So we are doing a lot to lead the way off the park and on it in many respects, but there is some good initiatives in other parts with respect to Fowler, Culina and I think the Eastern European approach at SFC will come to be of good value generally as well as their decent recruiting of State League players. Not to mention Perth with “Africa” in a sense, Dadi is good as is Kofi Danning at SFC
May 21st 2009 @ 11:21am
NUFCMVFC said | May 21st 2009 @ 11:21am | Report comment
Limpet #38, have to remember that we finished second in that group which would have gotten us through under current format (as it has for the Jets). Have to also remember that we finished second place to the eventual champions in Gamba Osaka as well
Overall, I don’t really care for these pre-season predictions as they don’t usually turn out correct