How will FFA fill Western Sydney's player void?

I would think West Sydney should be very hesitant about signing any marquee as they will be seen as wasting government money, wether that is true or not. Kewell, Neill or Cahill might been seen as ok as they are from Western Sydney or everyone thinks they are.

I think Matthaus would be a bad choice. Phil Stubbins isn't a Westie but he has all the relevent experience (Asia, A league and State League). Most important is they play attractive football as that would be the best marketing tool. If I was in charge I would grab one of the better state league coaches ASAP and appoint them NYL coach. You have to be a bit more cautious with senior team signing but you can start signing NYL players straight away. If you find a player that you really want after you fill your NYL roster it's easy enough just to sign him to a full senior contract. Senior player wise you can only spend so much on certain postiions so your always worried someone better will become available. I don't think state league clubs would enjoy losing their senior coach so some sort of compensation should be provided such as paying for 3 of that clubs coaches to upgrade their licenses.

As for coaching staff. If they wanted to go to Europe for a coach and coaches that could have a connection with the west of sydney why not look at Lothar Matthaus. He could do what Van Schip did at Melbourne Heart if not better. He has plenty of coaching experience, albeit not very successful, I think his best success was taking Partizan Belgrade to the UEFA Cup and winning the championship with them. the players he could bring out here could prove vital. Michael Ballack anyone? His 35 but would still bring alot to the league and team. If they are going to go for local coaches: Ante Milicic, Tony Popovic, Paul Okon, Branko Culina, Miron Bleiberg etc all will be considered. Milicic will probably end up being Heart head coach though; Okon is originally from Bossley Park in the west and was assistant to Aurelio Vidmar with Olyroos. Culina has the obvious experience, as does Bleiberg. Assistant coaches: Peter Tsekenis, Jean-Paul De Marigny, Aytek Genc and even David Seal should be considered. I'm quite certain David Seal has his coaching license but he lives in England and has own business over there but his from Western Sydney and there's that connection. Tsekenis won championship with Olympic last season and should make the step up to A-League in a assistant capacity or could even be considered for head coach and then there's Marigny who took Sydney United to grand final last year and won the championship with Sydney United in 2006. Genc took Blacktown City to the championship one season and is a former Sydney FC assistant coach. In the NSL he played with Parramatta Eagles and Sydney United. Goalkeeping coach? How bout Tony Franken. During his NSL career, he played with Sydney United, Parramatta Eagles, Sydney Olympic and Apia Leichhardt. He has that connection with the west (although Olympic are not exactly west), although he is the current goalkeeping coach with the Socceroos but surely he could easily take this job. Another option could be Mike Gibson (Blacktown City and Sydney United connection), John Filan (Blacktown City connection) or even snaring Zeljko Kalac from Sydney FC.

Off the top of my head here is a list of off-contract players: Dani Sanchez, Mark Paston ?, Alex Smith, Brent Griffiths, Tony Warner, Nick Ward, Nikolas Tsattalios, Cameron Lindsay ?, Jimmy Downey ?, (Wellington), Kasey Wehrman, Chris Payne, Francis Jeffers (all released by Newcastle), Issey Nakajima-Farran, Sayed Mohamed Adnan (Brisbane), Liam Miller, Andrezinho, Steven McGarry, Chris Coyne, Victor Sikora ?, (Perth Glory), Cameron Watson, Spase Dilveski, Yevhen Levchenko (Adelaide United), Stuart Musuliak, Adriano Pellegrino, Brad McDonald, Trent McClenahan (Central Coast), Scotty Jamieson, Bruno Cazarine, Michael Beauchamp, Juho Makela, Moriyasu (Sydney FC), Grant Brebner, Matthew Kemp, Fabio, Ante Covic, Vargas, Carlos Hernandez (Victory)......plus the 7 Melbourne Heart players that were released (Maycon, Alex Terra, Rutger Worm, Kristian Sarkies, Kamal Ibrahim, Kliment Taseski, Nikola Roganovic) plus all the Gold Coast players who haven't found clubs including Michael Thwaite and Zach Anderson who'd be great pickups. Apparently Tolgay Ozbey is doing well in India with East Benegal and his contract is up at end of season. How long did Ljubo Milicevic sign for Hajduk for? And then there is Ante Seric who is currently playing in Turkey with Karabükspor. And there is David Carney, not sure how long he signed with the Uzbek club for. They'll easily find a 23 man squad.

Ned Zelic has to be in there somewhere. Maybe make him responsible for press conferences? :P

Heizenberg unfidjer haupteperfon if the FFA are involved. Those names look okay but much better with someone who knows Western Sydney People as well as Football. Perhaps one of each. There are couple of ex Western Sydney Federal MPs out of a job who could fill one role ( dont laugh I am serious)

Wow jbinnie. That is the problem when you start making assumptions about what people might be thinking and start running with it... ...I'm just going to leave it there. Have a good Easter.

Not to mention that Perth Football Club is already the registered name of a team in the WAFL. As for the new team, I did notice somebody ask if it really needs the tag "west" or "western" anywhere? Particularly given it is a somewhat nebulous concept. Manchester seems to do alright with two big clubs called Manchester "something", Melbourne is doing OK without further geographic labels. Admittedly Sydney is very different to Melbourne in that there is an east/west divide and not everything leads to the centre as it does in Melbourne, even if the border of "west" is in constant flux. Is Parramatta really "west" these days, its almost east of Sydney's geographic centre and must be getting close to the demographic centre as well. That said, they still seem to think of themselves as being western, or at least as "not eastern", suburbs.

Griffo - Thanks for that explanation of your thoughts.Your second sentence does sum up the scenario beautifully,although we are not talking about a "dream",what we are discussing is "reality",at this point in time, with a capital R. With this in mind you then go on to cite what I take are quotes (or "spin") made by certain people who, I assume,because of their positions,you hold in high regard ,and yet when someone like myself attempts to break down this "spin" into reality (that word again), you subtly try to satirise the discussion by saying nothing Brendan Schwab did say what he said, but just as subtly as you, said nothing really for although you and I may agree with Brendan's general observation ,it is just that,an observation,without any real substance as to his fears as to WHY it MAY happen again.This is what is known as political grandstanding,or more simply, getting one's name in print without any real substance behind the quote. One thing in your reply did worry me,your apparent acceptance of the FFA as some sort of "cash cow" that can well afford to set up and underwrite a brand new identity in it's premier competition.You don't appear to have any thoughts on this at all despite "innuendo" having that same organisation having to get "hand out" money just a few short months ago,causing the chairman to trumpet nationally, this organisation is not a bank for clubs to borrow from, and yet now we have them,not lending to a club, but starting from scratch to build one !!!!!. Griffo,perhaps you would like to give us your thoughts on those facts and while doing so expand on the huge bank of experience the FFA has in running a professional football team for try as I might I cannot ennumerate your assertion into many more than Lowy and Gorman as men with such previous experience and if I were to be totally cynical it could be argued that both the areas they were involved in are reportedly not setting the heather alight,Sydney with their overall problems, and CCM with their on-going financial struggle.Keep up the good work jb

Surley you jest my friend?

Thanks jbinnie for your enlightening comment but sometimes you just can't take anything and everything to the nth degree just to satisfy the hunger pangs of debate. You seem a sensible fellow so would it help to articulate further my original comment as being a marketers dream but unrealistic and unaffordable? There you go. I note your concern also and can understand your "just a little worried", as someone who is probably a little less experienced, I am concerned that a certain Lyall Gorman (FFA) considers marquees a no certainty (and fair enough from an ex-Mariner front office officio) but all this before the various town hall meetings in the West Sydney areas, "the back office on board, the front office before that…". It is a 'long' six months (note the quotes) and there is plenty of debate to be had on decisions made before we get around to the "wage bill" - the FFA are picking up the tab, running the club, and vetoing 'community involvement and decision-making' even before it is made, after all. As Brendan Schwab has said, now yesterday, "Never again can an A-League team be allowed to fail". A tall ask in six months. The FFA has plenty of experience to draw on.

Griffo Thanks for the enlightening comment ,not that it made much sense but maybe you could take it a step further and let the readers know just how much the wage bill would be (even allowing for marquee status) if all these players were somehow lured to play with the new club. Then of course by using such well experienced players it would be no good getting an inexperienced coach for them ,with the mandatory assistant and ancillary staff,so with the departing Van Schip reportedly on $750,000 per year I suppose we are now up around the $5-8 million mark and we still only have half a team and NO, repeat NO, back-room or front-room staff.Am I getting through? Setting up a professional football team today is no easy task and is most certainly not a cheap exercise so here's wishing whoever takes on the job of settling this franchise into the league in just 6 short months all the best in their efforts, but surely you will forgive the more experienced among for being just a little worried as to the hoped for outcome. jb

jbinnie, only if you want to but you would just be way off the mark. The unwritten line in that list is a fair few would have to accept non-marquee status... :-)

Griffo -With names like that do I have to believe your hidden agenda is to send the "owners",the FFA, to the financial equivalent of total business failure. jb

Sorry, I didn't mean Berisha was going to join WSFC, I was using him as an example of good international players who could be sourced from overseas for the A-League. He has become a big hit and was reasonably priced too I believe.

Didn't Berisha just sign for 2 years?

Francis Jeffers has been released by the Jets today ;-) Player talk is good, but need the back office on board, the front office before that... Kewell, Chippers, Emerton, Neil and Culina could be a fine nucleus of a squad though.

Peter Wilt would be a strong, strong option if they could pick him up for the right price.

"PS: I don’t know any HAL fan, who likes these cringe-worthy “Americanisms” that are added to HAL names. " Dunno Fuss, I think if you tried to just shorten Perth Glory FC to just Perth FC you'd encounter a lot of resistance to the change. Probably not least from old Perth SC (Italia)