The season might be less than halfway through and the Newcastle Jets sit only two points outside the top six, but Gary van Egmond should begin preparing the club for next season.
Given the need to appease owner Nathan Tinkler, sponsors and of course the 10,000-plus fans who turn up each week, rebuilding is probably a little way off yet.
But even at this stage of the season there is simply no chance of the Jets even making the A-League grand final, let alone winning it.
Of their four wins they’ve managed to accumulate – all at home – they’ve beaten Melbourne Heart with a stoppage-time deflection, a Mariners side missing Amini, Wilkinson and with Ibini coming off the bench and a misfiring Melbourne Victory.
In five matches on the road they’ve managed a measly one goal, against the bottom-placed Gold Coast United, and gained one point via an uninspiring scoreless draw against Adelaide, who have since shipped seven goals in two matches.
The reality is coach van Egmond has inherited a squad full of players who do not compliment his footballing philosophies and simply will not fit into his long-term plans.
van Egmond admitted as much after his side’s disappoint 2-1 loss at home to Sydney FC on Saturday night.
“As much as I love playing a certain system, I don’t think we probably have the players here right at this moment, so we may change that,” he said.
Successful teams are often built upon a particular system or set of ideas, and there is more chance of Jason Culina returning to the club than van Egmond changing his own style in the long-term.
Of course, football is not AFL and there are no draft picks to be gained by losing matches, so there is no suggestion there should be a complete clear out of first-team players to bring in an entire team of 19 year olds.
But with van Egmond tipped to cull as many as 10 players from the senior squad at season’s end, it is clear that at least several of the starting 11 will no longer be at the club, and it’s time for some deserving juniors to start getting their chance.
Taylor Regan is by far the best example of why this needs to happen.
Regan has made four starts this season but all have been due to the injuries of regular starting combination Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Tiago Calvano, neither of whom have set the competition of fire so far this season.
Topor-Stanley seems to struggle as the designated ‘leader’ of the back four and has been a long way off the sparkling form of least season that saw him form one of the meanest defences in the league alongside Ljubo Milicevic.
Tiago arrived amid much fanfare from German club Fortuna Dusseldorf, but at the age of 30 seems devoid of pace and brings with him to the A-League the more dubious features of South American defending.
Among a sea of mediocrity Regan was by far and away the best player on the pitch for the Jets on Saturday afternoon and thoroughly deserves to hang onto his starting spot.
He is the prototype of the modern defender: fast, athletic and without fail will always look to play the ball to feet.
Reputations should count for little. If Tiago was the 23-year-old upstart and Regan the imported defender with a cushy contract, there is no way Tiago would be starting if he was performing like he is currently.
Ben Kantarovski is another who needs to be seeing more game time than he is currently.
Kantarovski’s form coming off the bench has been largely up and down but it is important to remember that he is still recovering from an ACL injury that sidelined him for the first six months of 2011.
Despite often playing out wide or in defence, Kantarovski is a natural distributor and should soon be given the opportunity to start ahead of the aging Kasey Wehrman.
Wehrman was outstanding in his first season for the Jets but is another whose pace has abandoned him, and after an interrupted pre-season, is struggling to run out 90 minutes.
Wehrman’s right-hand man at the base of Newcastle’s midfield is captain Jobe Wheelhouse, another who can count himself fortunate to be starting.
After being a loggerheads with the club following a one-year contract offer, Wheelhouse was only months later named captain by Branko Culina in a move that had many scratching their heads.
The mail was that the move came from Tinkler, who wanted a local player to wear the armband, and one suspects that if Wheelhouse wasn’t in possession it he’d also be struggling to keep his spot.
Take a cursory look over the teamsheet from Saturday’s loss to Sydney and it soon becomes clear that there are more than a few that should be nervous about their future prospects at the club.
Nobody could question Labinot Haliti or Tarek Elrich’s quintessentially English qualities – work ethic, desire and ‘passion for the jersey’ – but neither possess the technical ability to beat the competition in this league and they never will.
Whether Francis Jeffers or Michael Bridges have anything to offer up front remains hidden behind a lack of match fitness at the moment, but both remain band-aid solutions and both would be at long odds to feature in forthcoming seasons.
The likes of Mario Simic, Sam Gallaway, Jacob Pepper and James Virgili all made their senior debut last season and have all demonstrated varying levels of competency at stages during their brief A-League careers.
They mightn’t be at the level of Regan and Kantarovski but all of them should remain at the club in future seasons.
The same thing can’t be said of some of the aforementioned deadwood.
The Jets have been carrying too many passengers for far too long. It’s time for them to go.
Josh
Guest
i think the problem is van egmond i was spewing when i found out he was likely to get the coaching job. he has a typical school teacher mentality. a good manager can get the best out of his players van egmond cannot as he has a system that he will enforce on his players. i think everyone can agree to a certain point that letting someone play there natural game in any sport can make them enjoy the game better and perform better. we have no individuals which may sound good considering that its a team sport but what we needed against adelaide in that lethargic 0-0 draw was someone that was willing to run the ball and take a player on, but instead we were left watching van egmonds passing game dragging adelaide left to right while still maintaining good defensive shape. as a manager he is a poor one you can talk to me all you want about the year the jets won but he had the personel, all young with a mix of experience in the side. in my opinion as a newcastle supporter who will support them no matter what van eggbeater is a wannabe ange postecoglu copycat with half the brains
GirlieBird
Guest
I don't think our season is a write-off just yet. We know we need to start winning away and not drop points at home (like vs Syd). Anything can happen in football - look at Brisbane, they were high flying then lost a few players to injury and all of a sudden they hit a form slump. History shows that generally every club hits a patch of bad form at some point during the season, when this happens for other clubs, Jets need to capitalise. Perhaps we've already experienced our 'form slump' it just hasn't come as a series of games but rather every second game. I could be wrong but I wonder whether this is the first season where the scheduling for Jets games has us alternating home and away matches week in week out for such a long stretch, in previous seasons we often had 2 home games together or 2 away games together. Yes it shouldn't matter in terms of the football, but it's obviously doing something to the players and therefore impacting their performance on the field. Looking forward to the second half of the season where i think the draw is better, we have a run of home games with matches vs Syd & CCM mixed in towards end of the season which could see us make a late dash for the finals - hoping it won't be too little too late (that will depend on how we go in our upcoming games). Above said, I'm not so naive to think that there aren't issues with the current squad. There will be a clearout at the end of the season, some of the older players will likely be let go, and as hard as it is to accept there may even be a few favourites leaving, but that's football - player turnover is unavoidable. I just hope the new players we get will embrace the town & the fans and perform on the park. End rant
Michael, Newcastle
Guest
This is a very good analysis and reflects a lot of my thoughts. Did you see that Connor Chapman, Joeys Captain has just signed with the Jets? It's very likely he'll come in for Tiago later on. While I like Tarek, I think he really has to up the ante or go. As for Haliti, he apparently "bleeds for Newcastle" but is not adding anything to the team. Byun is simply not performing well enough as a right back. He has been the pathway for goals down one side. Wheelhouse? Hmmm. Solid but probably not what GVE needs. Maybe off the bench to shore up a game. Zadkovich has shown improvement this year, particularly with his pressure on the player with the ball and distribution. He is also extremely mobile and fit. Brockie and Griffiths are good but needs a tiny bit more consistency. Perhaps with a better creative midfielder (like Bridges) they would function better. What Newcastlle's lacking is a) a central defender who can boss that area. Kennedy is also a weak link in defence. Solid as a keeper but not a dominant enough character to command his back four. b) a talisman, a creative force in the team in the hole behind the strikers a la Thomas Broich, Carlos Hernandez, Fabregas. That kind of player. Jason Culina wasn't that player, despite being sold as that. He's extremely good, just not a creator.
Bondy
Most H.A.L clubs struggle without a number 10 running the middle of the park . Musty @ Fred . The Jets cant win the premiership everybody knows that but there home form may light things up later in the season for their supporters . I would assume it's a very demanding position there for a manager .Thank Christ we have a salary capping system in place also .