If Saturday night’s encounter at AAMI Park was epic theatre, then one performer unquestionably took centre stage – Melbourne Victory’s hot-knife-through-butter, Fahid Ben Khalfallah.
Despite not scoring and earning a yellow card for dissent, his six shots, mazy runs and creation of opportunities for others meant he was arguably the game’s outstanding performer.
It was a much needed performance for a Victory side that had the creative Gui Finkler well shackled by Rostyn Griffiths, and Besart Berisha limited in his opportunities by a disciplined Perth defence.
By this stage of the season, the Tunisian’s story is well known. He arrived with much less fanfare than more celebrated signings such as Carl Valeri, Matthieu Delpierre and the aforementioned Berisha, but has turned out to be one the signings of the season not just for Victory, but the A-League.
Sure, he’s a fiery customer, but Victory’s most prominent live wire this season is their finals wildcard as Archie Thompson’s contributions fade to cameo roles, Kosta Barbarouses remains inconsistent (even if he has had a great last month) and teams figure out that Finkler can be shackled if you don’t allow him time on the ball.
The complaint on the pitch may be that he has only scored four goals for the season. But there’s a much bigger complaint off the pitch – why is he still unsigned?
Plenty of imports have found it hard to settle in the A-League in their first season, though that trend has started to fade as debutants like Marc Janko, Andy Keogh and Khalfallah have taken the league by storm. When you look at how players such as Thomas Broich, Berisha and Carlos Hernandez continued to improve as they stayed in Australia, imagine what they could do with a second season?
Kevin Muscat was quoted during the week as saying that Khalfallah wanted to stay in Australia, and that Victory wanted to keep him in navy blue. On current form, surely some A-League clubs are circling too.
So come on Melbourne – sign him up!
fadida
Guest
Great players I hope he stays, ditto Janko. Perhaps now the Stinkler is "serious" about the Jets he might sign them both :)
fadida
Guest
Agree MT. There needs to be a reward for good recruitment. To move the standard along we need to be able to keep what we have and add, not just keep replacing what we had
Colly
Roar Pro
Agree that its hard to find a guy with his work ethic - there's been many an A-League import who seemingly expect it all to be rather easier than it is. And yeah, there's hundreds of Khalfallahs out there, but as a fan I'm rather fond of watching this Khalfallah and its good to have some regularity in your heroes - one of my great "what ifs?" as a Victory fan is how Fred might have taken the league by storm had he not left after season 2.
melbourneterrace
Guest
I am just as annoyed Brisbane lost Berisha solely because of hte cap. Saying it's all just part of the game is a cop out, it totally disadvantages teams that put in the hard yards to find players and bring them to the league.
Colly
Roar Pro
Even with the cap I don't think that's a massive problem; if Archie retires at the end of the season there'll be some cap room to play with. As for a CB... as a former captain Leijer should have been on a decent wage that could be used on a better defender. Or a better defensive coach who knows how to defend set pieces!
Isaac Nowroozi
Roar Guru
Such a hard worker on the pitch, love watching him play. Hope he stays in Australia, but I do truly believe he has the capability to play in 'bigger' leagues. Agree with Uncle Junior when he says there are hundreds of Khalfallahs out there, but finding one with his work ethic may not be as easy as people think.
Bondy
Guest
He's a good player and likes a shot at goal. I would've thought the keeper Coe would be the concern ,if Vukovic was keeping for the Victory they'd probably be leading the league comfortably .. Good game and atmosphere last night ...
Uncle Junior
Guest
Victory have a good record of not being forced into unreasonable contracts. Fahid has been a wonderful addition to the team and anyone who watched his early form during the FFA Cup would've realised he was something special. But there are hundreds of Fahids out there so, if he wants to ask for unreasonable wages, Victory should (and will) shake his hand and say 'good luck with your future' and they'll scour Ligue2, Bundesliga2, Segunda Division, Central America, South America, etc. for any number of players who have the technical ability to have caught the eye of successful European clubs, but for any number of reasons lacked the drive to push on to compete at world's best levels. Broich, Berisha, Bonevacia, Zwaanswick, Hernandez, Keogh, Isaias, Carrusca, Janko, Dimitrijević, Petkovic, etc. had all been in squads at some of the world's big clubs but never took the next step. There are hundreds more Fahid Ben Khalfallahs out there.
Waz
Guest
SFC, Glory and Brisbane Roar are all interested and I believe talking to his agent, I can't see him fitting in the WA style but there's a natural fit with any one of the other two. He's a great signing alright and if possible Victory should resign him but I also agree with melbourneterrace that Victorys defence needs strengthening badly, so Muscatts going to have to prioritise. And to your point on the "silly salary cap" - just a reminder (as a Roar fan) the only reason you were able to sign Berisha was because of the silly cap restricting Roar so you win some, lose some. However the question for Victory is not around the cap but around the balance between attack/defence which is wrong at the moment.
melbourneterrace
Guest
He's good and we could easily afford to sign him and keep him in the League but the reality is that the we have this silly cap holding back clubs and we have far greater problems at the back that need addressing first with what little space we have. I'm completely over having an ordinary defence and leaking stupid goals. New CB to replace Leijer and a new GK for Coe would be priority one and two.