Roar end season with ACL loss to Urawa

Unless you make the actual final, the ACL costs clubs money. This has been the case from the very start, and the situation has barely improved in the last 8 years or so.

Club retort to this story here: http://www.brisbaneroar.com.au/article/price-freeze-for-members-as-roar-builds-for-new-season/nsv8eyioydnu1c7w35otsz4rl

Complete counter to this story from the Roar Chairman Chris Fong on the club website today: http://www.brisbaneroar.com.au/article/price-freeze-for-members-as-roar-builds-for-new-season/nsv8eyioydnu1c7w35otsz4rl

Not sure what this means exactly - Roar are forecasting a loss of $2.25m this season with almost $1m attributed to participating in the ACL (how nuts is that). Either way a loss of $1.2m falling to under $500k next year with cuts is still unsustainable surely. Full story at: http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/brisbane-roar-to-slash-spending-as-it-forecasts-225m-loss/story-fni2wcjl-1227343837975

See: http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/brisbane-roar-to-slash-spending-as-it-forecasts-225m-loss/story-fni2wcjl-1227343837975

I would agree with fast wingers - the high press teams have used against us would be less aggressive if they had one or two fast men behind them

I'd agree entirely with your "encouraged to leave list" even though there's some good names in there some could and would move on. The only change I would make would be to exchange Theo for Young. I'd keep Young now and I say that as a vocal (but never on match day) critic in the past - at 29 he can give us five more years where Thro is hitting 35 and May only have one or two seasons left.

There are so many imponderables with the Roar setup at the moment. There have been some backroom staff leave but we have no idea at present who of the coaching staff are staying. Jeff Hopkins, Rado, John Sime, Kearton and conditioner Conwell all have their uses and with Youth Team and Ladies Team to take care of it may be best to hang on to two or more of them even if the new head coach brings in his own assistant. Whoever they can hang onto will certainly help acclimatise the new coach on matters A League, FFA and even the local competitions because neither of the mentioned candidates would have an integral knowledge of the local scene or the current playing squad. Whatever we may think transpired between Mulvey and Stead it is clear that the club suffered both on the playing field but more importantly, to the Bakries, through the turnstiles. It is fair to say though that bad weather and rearranged games also played a major part and it is my assumption that playing the ACL games at Robina was purely financial. Waz onto Tribultietx, really he has a better CV than Mulvey had when he took over however he will need strong support from the administration and remaining coaching staff if he is given the job. Being an optimist I believe he can probably pull it off. Players to keep is also a hard one. Have you listed all the players down and put a salary against them and tried to keep within the cap. That is why the young ones are so important on a financial basis as well as skill levels. In my opinion Danning, Polenz, Steffenuto, North, Young, Lustica, Sarota,Petratos and either Henrique or Solórzano should be openly encouraged to leave. It may be that some of them have contracts and want to stay but there is a lot of deadwood there. I am also not sold on Kaluderovic because he doesn't get stuck in but then he has not been given the service and I would like to see him playing off a decent striker instead of leading the line. If you then look at who is left on the playing roster you will see the type of team The Roar can put out and possibly work out what room we have in the cap for quality additions in defence, midfield and attack.

Unfortunately you can't just put the coaching question to one side and it's looking like a straight shoutout between Krunoslav Jurcic and Tribulietx and it's even money which way it will go. But taking your point: 1. Secure Young, Borrello and any other young kids not on contract 2. Let Steff, Danning and Sorrata go 3. Kaluderovic - I'm personally not convinced but he scores so sign him up asap 4. Sort out anyone else that might not want to stay eg North, Theo, MacKay, Lustica etc ? I've no reason to pick out those particular names but there's always someone on contract that wants away 5. Then what style are we playing and what players do we need? a left back definately, and maybe two attacking midfielders/wingers. I would like some fast players in the mix as we lack pace to break quickly.

I'd forgotten about that. It maybe we run a year without one and then reappoint (my cynical mind is still saying Theijjsens in the running ;-)

Good point - stream-lining has its good and bad. It would interesting to see what happens to Ken's old role. The dust has not settled yet. It could also be that the new guy has HIS own people he prefers to work with. If you recall, Ange treid to lure KS to MV when he jumped ship. KS chose to stay.

Some very good and interesting points in there - the only issue I see is a head coach can't oversee the first team the second team and the youth team .... and if they do when they leave (they all do unless your Arsene Wenger) then the new guy comes in and starts rebuilding teams from the kids to the first; if it's not Stead then Roar still need a TD of sorts!

This is just how I see things - all speculation: From Fong's position - he does not want to 1. have to hire yet another coach in a years time, and, 2. mediate another fight about who is right or wrong in terms of football. Also I would think Fong wants the guy who is bridging the youth squad into senior squad (which was KS's role) to work together with the head coach, not go over the top of him, like KS did Mulvey. Fong's position is also about making sure these sorts of disputes never happen again, so he has the authority to decide who runs football after the debacle. Also the new guy would also have addressed this situation in negotiations. Any senior manager would have to deal with this once and for all. If Fong didn't address the siutaion, his job could be on the line. Everyone has a job to do. In my view, if I was the owner, I would be extremely upset that the club hired Rado, then fired him early in the season, hired Mulvey and then fired him early the next season, hired Thijjsen and fired him at the end of the same season. Also the club is now trying to reduce the financial burden by 'stream-lining' operations, so putting it all together, I think Fong told KS that he no longer rules football at Roar. The new guy will ultimately decide football matters AND be the head coach. IMO, Fong and the owners have decided that things have to change to move forward. So what this means is that the much debated Roar style may see new direction. So my advice is to ppl is not to be too rusted on any particular style or philosophy.

Funny enough the club made three office staff redundant today with more to follow according to the courier mail so maybe this is all just a cost cutting exercise?

So, if we put the new head coach aside for a moment and assume he's on board soon and drop the Stead's "great/not great" debate and instead look forward, what needs to change on the pitch? I've heard some say "clear out" but others say one or two signings?

Or Sean Dobson or the Bakrie family or Chris Fong the Chairman maybe???

I'm really not sure I want to get into a discussion with you on Stead chopper but here goes: You said "[he has] never offered up his coaching credentials" - would you like to explain how you know this? what you're saying is he's been employed by Brisbane Roar for 6 years and he hasn't offered any credentials nor presumably has the club bothered to check? That's quite an incredible statement! You then said he "took his eye off his main job and that was to look after the fitness training" - well it wasn't was it, that's been Matt Conwells job for the past two years but as you know being involved with football clubs the head coach will set the fitness targets and it's for the relevant trainers to deliver those goals. If Roar were unfit then it's the head coach that is accountable for setting goals too low or not holding conditioning staff to account. I'm not really sure what the point us you're trying to make with the second post so me may be best to let this particular thread die out? Perhaps if we move the discussion along to the future I'd be interested in your views on Ramon Tribulietx - if he indeed is the replacement he comes with low pedigree and background and, as you've recruited also, you'll appreciate the dilemma in selecting the right coaching staff. For me it doesn't seem a significant gamble - that is providing the infrastructure around him remains stable but with stead going if say Rado was to move on also I would argue we've then got an inexperienced coach and a much greater risk with less supporting infrastructure. With only a two year contract if would seem his remit us not to rebuild slowly over 2-4 seasons but to deliver meaningful results within two seasons. Your thoughts?

Waz and Bob, Ken Stead first came to Brisbane in the early nineties from Scotland as a player. He trialled at my club and we did not sign him for the Brisbane Premier League. I believe he dropped down a division and played for a while before going back to the UK and studying sport science. I believe this is his vocation as a fitness and conditioning coach and that fully qualified football coaches should be dictating philosophy as Ange did. I have no doubt that Ken assisted Ange in getting the best out of his players for a high pressing possession game however he was never Ange's assistant coach. In my time in football I have hired and fired quite a few coaches and some were celebrated Australian internationals but I never ever tried to tell them how to play the game because that is the coaches territory. All we can say as supporters is we prefer this or that style of football.

Ken did do a lot but times have changed. Also Roar mgmt has had to recruit 4 coaches in 4 years. There are a lot of the finer details that we don't know about regarding football itself within a club. Ange himself would want to run things his way for any new side he coaches. So not all coaches want to be told how to suck eggs - not when they have convictions about certain things. It may not be the case that this new guy disagrees with the overall philosophy but there may be some sticking points. The timing itself seems suspicious, but then again this is speculation. I have no way of knowing for sure but sometimes you add 2 and 2 together.

The common denominator in this continuing mess is Ken Stead as Football Director.