It’d be good to know that he’s surrounded by aussies – might make his return a lot smoother.

Another sidenote – Johan Neeskens is the assistant coach to Rijkaard at Galatasaray.

As the days go by it looks more and more likely that Neill will swallow his wallet and decide to take the reduced wages at West Ham.

The captaincy issue is an interesting one. Does the captain of the Socceroos need to be a captain of a top flight side and if not what impact will it have on the team?

Neill’s best hope is for a money bags club like Man City to offer him the sort of money Galatasaray are willing to pay.

Otherwise, he will be joining Harry in the great Turkish Baths of Istanbul.

Greg – question – when were you in Europe ? … the EPL has become a monster and really if you’re any type of quality footballer it is either in England or Spain where you want to ply your trade … sure playing in the Old Firm or Istanbul derby would be an experience you’d never forget .. but in the end the week to week quality is a lot higher in the PL he’d certainly be taking a step down …. for Kewell it was a good decision – he’d been a permanent sick note for the last 4+ seasons he was in England so the step down has been beneficial for his longevity

Further to Pip’s comments. There are big clubs outside the top 4 leagues that will pay bigger money than most of the EPL because they are big fish in their local leagues, but they are chasing European Glory.

Fenerbache, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos etc.

The problem with Lucas is that West Ham unwisely offered way too much money for his services. A preposterous 70k pounds a week. Liverpool offered him 40k a week when he left Balckburn but he turned them down and the chance to play in the Champions League and took the big money at West Ham instead.
Considering West Ham’s current finanaces, there is no way they can keep paying Lucas stupid amounts of money.
They are not the Lucas Neill Benevolent Society.

This is Neill’s predicament – get paid 40k pound a week in the EPL or got to Turkey and get paid 50k pound a week.

Form shows that he goes where the money is.

Different to the majority of Australasians, I did my time in Europe not in England. Thus I am always concerned to water down the Anglocentric view a little, because I have experienced that there is a huge world out there for which English football is big but not the center of the universe. So no question that the EPL is a better address than the Turkish league, but for a lot of Europe the difference is not nearly as great as we in Australasia perceive it to be.

In fact, dare I be so bold as to suggest that for a lot of Europe, Galatasary is a more prestigious address than West Ham? (or wherever else in the EPL Neill is likely to go next).

Anyway, I stress that I’m stopping taking a side here, but merely trying to put forward a different angle to view things from. One only moves forward by considering issues from different angles.

Given he jumped for the cash in the first place over a chance at Liverpool – I think it’s evident where his focus is …. And good on him … but to basically say he should stay at WH at any price because his country needs him in 2010 is a very big ask

Pippu is my name (Pippinu being a diminutive).

Whiskey

Re your point about being able to produce a bolter (as no doubt we will every now and then), I thik it would be a mistake to compare the NSL and the A-League in this respect.

If we get fewer and fewer palyers into the EPL, it will be because:
1. the rest of the world is producing players keen on the EPL (so massive competition);
2. and in any event, Euro leagues no. 5 to 12 pay excellent wages and offer very good careers for aspiring professional players.

In fact, there are stacks of choices outside of the Euro leagues if you want to earn some decent coin these days – and with clubs with decent facilities – I suspect that will only increase in the future.

Jesse,
I don’t think Lucas will lose anything by going to Turkey as long as he stays super fit injury free; it may even benefit us with Lucas playing a central defender’s role going into a final season before a SA 2010 WC…

~~~~~~
KB

It really is criminal that people like Art Sapphire and Pippinu who write such good comments should continue to go by noms de plume. Guys, such knowledge and insight deserves to have real names attached! (And do you think you could do a bit of moonlighting and help improve the general standard of rugby comments? This Tuqiri business has really brought out the worst in many people. Heaven knows what they would say of the Egyptian football team [get it?] Oh but that’s right, they didn’t play rugby league, so it doesn’t matter what they do.)

Since I have only 1% of the football knowledge of most of the comment makers here – actually, 1% is still a lot of knowledge in this case! – I usually like to introduce a different angle. In this case it would be: what is it saying about the future of football that a player like Neill can get more money in Turkey than in the EPL? Usually players go to where the money is best, don’t they? And it’s not as if Turkey is such a bad place to live in comparison with England, is it? (Think of the climate!)

Lets not forget HK turned up from Turkey looking sharper and fitter than I have memories of him.

If Neil joins Gala The jury will be out on his performance level until the end of the season but the verdict is in on HK and it was in his favour.

“Don’t go to Ligue 1 Carlos, stay in the EPL for our sake”

Current US players in the EPL

Tim Howard March – Everton
Jonathan Spector – West Ham United
Eddie Johnson – Fulham
Clint Dempsey – Fulham

Yet somehow they managed to beat Spain in a competitive match. You can draw your own conclusions.

Pip, you are right in suggesting that the ’star’ players may not be around in the next few generations but the standard/depth of the squads will improve to the benefit of the NT and HAl (team of stars versus star team cliche) – still you would hope that there might be the odd bolter who will add that added something special. A team of wilkshire like consistency would be more than acceptable. but If the NSL systems could still produce players like Kewell, Shwarzer and Farina etc then why can’t the new elite club youth systems recently proposed by FFA?

We should bear in mind that we are asking him to make a huge sacrifice in the scheme of things though. Millions of dollars, over a reasonably short career that only has a few good years left in it. He is being asked to forgo massive wages in a country with a punitive income tax for high earners like footballers. Very few footballers get richer after they retire (particularly if they then invest in Australian football clubs). I’m not sure anyone really appreciates that demanding Lucas stay in the UK is really demanding that he give up some serious money that would otherwise set his family up for a couple of generations.

That said, I hope he does.

Cheers
md

Another intelligent post. I have to agree that in the next 5-10 years we may not produce another Kewell or Viduka, but that the depth of talent will be greater. The “game breakers” with big names may not be there, but on the balance we’ll probably have a better squad to call on, which also, psychologically, would mean that it wouldn’t be such a big deal of a Kewell or Viduka were out injured. Hopefully during the next 5-10 years we will produce more players capable of playing in the big leagues, but without the short-sighted view that only playing in the EPL is playing in a big league.

On Lucas Neil’s (possible) move to Galatasaray, I think he is moving sideways, as Andrew stated. Playing for a middle of the road EPL club is not really going to put the same amount of pressure on him as playing for one of the biggest clubs in Turkey, although the quality of opposition won’t be quite the same. Jesse, I see your point, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Galatasaray have a big squad and that’s important, it means training will be intense and that is along with a lot of scrutiny the benefit of a big team. West Ham to Galatasary strikes me as a sideways move rather than a move down. It’s just a shame there not in the Champion league.

However I didn’t like the fact he chose west ham over Liverpool when he had the chance. That was a chance to play Champions League football.

I must admit I don’t have much of a read on Neil’s personality but someone who is self motivated like Kewell I trust to make a career move to suit their body.

I’m on the fence about Cullina but I support the other 3 coming back to Perth Glory (assuming Coyne is signed). They may get used in the Socceroos first 11 but if the full team is fit then there probably just role players.
For those guys coming back to an A League team they will be pretty much guaranteed a first team spot in the “Asian” Socceroos i.e. the B team made up of players playing in the A league, K league, J League and China. If they do well they can still get a spot in the World cup team and there all mature aged players who have been in Europe so know what they have to do to compete and the required level.
It’s no longer just qualifying for the world cup now that we are in Asia, qualifying for the Asian cup and possibly the confederations cup are important too. We are going to have a lot of guys not play on from the 2010 world cup to the 2014 cup and the more quality tournaments we qualify in between the smoother the transition will be.

During this discussion, I surmised the following in the near future:
1. the Socceroos will no longer boast big names (of the ilk of Kewell/Viduka); but
2. we may ultimately have incredible depth, such that there is no longer a massive gap between, say, our 5th best player and our 25th best player.

Good or bad?

Only time will tell – but that is the world we are now entering.

It will probably be good in terms of maintaining a top 3 position in Asia – it might just be enough to hold onto a 16 to 20 ranking in the World.