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After the Villa debacle, it's time to scrap the guest player

Roar Rookie
22nd October, 2014
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Roar Rookie
22nd October, 2014
16

David Villa and the City Group have made a mockery of the A-League and everything Australian football has built over the last 10 years.

To promise the Australian public 10 games, and then cut it short for ‘promotional reasons’ is absolutely disgraceful.

One can be sure that Frank Lampard’s stint at Manchester City won’t be cut short for similarly pathetic reasons.

Make no bones about it, David Villa will not return, and nor should he be allowed to be. He has made a joke of our competition, turning up for a few matches, and then taking off with the belief that we should be grateful that he graced us with his presence for measly few games.

The A-League and Melbourne City fans deserve much, much better. We have a team in the Asian Champions League final, wonderful active supporter groups and strong growth in interest, TV ratings and attendances. We need bow to no one anymore.

In the wake of this scandal we need to remove guest players from our competition.

A long time ago, when the competition was fledgling, guest players might have been useful. Kazu Miura and Benito Carbone were strong performers, but their real influence was minimal.

When we think about the foreign stars who built our league up, we think of Dwight Yorke, Fred, Thomas Broich, Alessandro Del Piero, Carlos Hernandez, Besart Berisha and even Robbie Fowler.

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What do these stars have in common? They all signed proper contracts with the club and played at least one full season. They didn’t come for guest stints of only a few matches, they stayed and had input at all levels of the club, on the training pitch, in the dressing room, with fans off the field, with sponsors, and of course, performances on the pitch itself.

We didn’t need David Villa to come to the A-League to continue its growth. There was enough hype going on around Melbourne Victory, the Heart’s rebranding, Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC, not to mention the new excitement that occurs with every new season. A-League season 10 was going to be huge regardless.

Ours is a league to be respected, for it’s a great league and one Aussie fans should be proud to call their own.

So why do we still allow people who aren’t fully committed to the growth of Australian football to grace our shores? We shouldn’t. We should scrap the guest player rule and consign this disgraceful episode to its rightful place in the dustbin of history.

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