Dimitri Petratos jetting away from Brisbane Roar

Devere has a new contract with Brisbane Roar now. http://www.news.com.au/sport/roar-key-defender-luke-devere-resigns-until-2019/news-story/bc8764537d818f9ec4ff6e6c00155ad7

All of that is true jb, in everything the A League does it tends to "muddle through" due to lack of funds. The new tv deal was meant to fix that magically (and to be fair, expectations were unrealistic) but when the new grant is announced I would hope it's double the current amount and has a significant portion ($750k or so) allocated to academy and youth development Roars new TD has come from Southampton academy much to the frustration of a few supporters but that reflects what you are saying too, the best academies aren't who you expect them to be and of course the commercial reality - clubs like Roar aren't able to afford the top coaches. And to be honest Roar stepping down to U8 (and not age 12) came as a bit of a surprise but apparently they aim to leverage their commercially successful RAP program which has something like 30+ coaches employed and of course already works with kids aged 5-8 meaning they should be able to identify and funnel very young talent to the academy All this should be enough to significantly improve the quality of players development though, there's several questions unanswered of course and a long way to go before fair comparisons can be made with Europe. And all clubs but Roar especially, need to unlock government funding as they lack internal funds and will do so for at least a decade to come.

Waz - My worry about "academies" is based on something I have witnessed. Years ago when I was asked where the most effective "academies" were, imagine my surprise when I was told by a German qualified coach that Strasbourg and Auxerre ,both "lesser" French teams, had the reputations of having the most successful "academies".Coming from a German I thought that had to have some substance. I then visited Glasgow Rangers state of the art training ground where their Academy is based. In 2001 it cost $ 22 millions.!!!!! This was such an impressive site that a couple of years ago I had a look at how many players had come through the system. Up to this year there has been 6, a goalkeeper and right back McGregor and Hutton,playing in the English Championship, Charlie Adams who you may have seen playing with Stoke,and a winger Burke,who played for Coventry for a few seasons. That is to me the danger of setting up "academies". It is a costly exercise and there is no guarantee of getting return from the efforts of those who run the education process and they,the people who run the show ,will be put in the job by club management., taking us back to square 1. Cheers jb..

Hardly sugar coated jb. My interest was peaked on this one by the press reaction in particular Fix Sports. Dimi moving on has got way more attention than say Lustica heaving last year, both likely to be in that mid-band pay range. So why all the fuss over Dimi? Your critique over Roars youth development is valid, there's a solid production line in Queensland alright but that's about to get disrupted as roar stretch down to U8 - how they will work with all other clubs remains to be seen but if you have a designated development team at your junior club you are likely to face a young roar team, wearing orange, and sporting the same club badge as the senior side. Again it will be interesting to see how thats received lol. The sports science/sports medicine program at Roar has been improved, saying you have one and actually having one are two different things - speaking to the ladies a couple of years back their "sports medicine" was a trip to the GP not club medicos and first team players weren't much better off. Hardly surprising given the clubs payment record. The Logan thing is no longer a rumour it's been announced and work commenced, only a stuff up of bakrie proportions will stop that now. And at Logan training, sports medicine and sports science will all be located in the same building - no need for a 40 minute cab ride to the designated doctor anymore. But my point wasn't about Roar, Dimi was the catalyst yes, but rather the improvements in training facilities across several clubs; City's is held up as the benchmark although its apparently less substantial than it's presented but it's still mighty fine, Mariners is probably the benchmark, Nix and AU and Wanderers all have new training bases, Victory and Sydney have enhanced their shared facilities; that's 6 with new facilities within the last 5 years, and 2 with enhanced facilities. All that is recent. So my point was not sugar coating anything - if Dimi were arriving at Roar next season and leaving 4-5 years down the line, how much better will he be then? And that's happening at 80% of clubs. If there's a downside to this it's there aren't enough good coaches, so we're likely to see more foreigners in the back rooms

Waz - I happen to know from past discussions that you are a devoted fan of Dimi and I think that has to be admired. However you have also been very vocal in your criticism of Roar management in recent years and even lately you have been questioning decisions made re. team line ups in today's climate.. Suddenly you have given us a"sugar coated"view to a future ,one we all vehemently hope for, but the realists among us tend to question the chances of things happening as you have laid them out. First of all lets deal with the player. Dimi joined Sydney as an 18 year old and was immediately farmed out to a local club for a season. While at Olympic he played 14 games scoring 1 goal. Over his two seasons on Sydney's books he played 30 games scoring 5 goals. He then jetted off overseas and spent a season there playing 11 games (only in Asian Cup games)and had his best scoring result getting 8 goals. He returned to Roar as a 21year old and for the past 4 seasons has struggled somewhat to become a first team regular ,which he appears to have done this season. In those 4 seasons he has played in 91 matches and scored 15 goals, hardly world beating figures for an attacking midfielder, but nevertheless compared with the Roar marquee who has played 199 games, scoring 23 goals, his figures are acceptable for the style of game the team plays. As you know you and I have different opinions as to what is Dimi's best position and I hope this latest move sees him blossom., Now to the future you describe.There have been rumours, innuendo and downright rubbish spoken about moves to Logan,Griffith,Ballymore, etc etc and in this latest offering you have veered off into sports science and sports medicine which as far as I know was a pre=requisite into joining the HAL in it's infancy.But we have to remember that the men who were present at that "infancy" have all long gone and been replaced,we hope, by people who can make it work ,but please,this is not something that has just happened. You talk about the "academy" that did not exist 5 years ago and yet there is evidence that Brisbane Roar has provided an almost endless stream of youth into the top teams in the HAL.,so although it may not be deemed a proper "academy" it has been doing a similar job very well ,if not better than most HAL clubs, whose teams that are dotted with ex-Roar players. Waz, your view of the future is heartening,in fact an aim for us all to witness, but,please, tread carefully ,your offerings are too often based on fact for you to start using "crystal ball" technology. Your last sentence says it all Facts don't spread distraction,they only tell it as it is and that in turn tells us what has to be done. Your equally concerned mate jb..

There's a lot of focus on this, Fox Sports even headlined this "Roars woes continue" indicating they don't see this as a routine player or a journeyman just moving along and yet when he arrived in Brisbane it was a nothing move, a no news story. I actually think Dimi is a good example of what the A League can and has achieved; when he arrived at Roar he was a Sydney reject, next stop NPL. He arrived in the lowest possible salary band, re-signed on to the mid salary band and now joins Jets on the upper salary band and a player with plenty of potential. He's fitter, stronger, more skilful than 3 years ago and if Jets can continue his development by the time he's 27-28 he may prove to be a truly outstanding player. And all this was done at Roar (which they deserve credit for) and, again reflective of his development, the Football Department in Brisbane has evolved where to the point where sports science and sports medicine play an equally important role as coaching, new facilities next year will concentrate this expertise and an academy down to under 8 will channel talent to the football department. 5 years ago none of this existed and in 5 more years it will be established and improved even further - imagine what improvements will occur to players moving through the system then. And not just in Brisbane but across the HAL. It's easy to get distracted by what we don't have and what we lack as a competition, but the improvements on and off the field continue and that has got to be good for the game.

jb - I think the majority of Brisbane Roar fans are aware of the squads' dependence on veterans. There are as they say mitigating circumstances that even I cannot debunk. We had a management structure that tied quite a few players to long term contracts (four years I think) and they were the backbone of the team. This could have been a sound move however they all come off contract at the same time. Nobody thought we could do a couple for 3 years two for four years and one for five. The theory was underpinned by the loss of Berisha because we didn't want to go through that again did we? Anyway we were supposed to be bringing in fresh talent that would regenerate the squad incrementally. Unfortunately the change in management Rado to Mulvey to Thiesen and then Aloisi on the football side then the debacles on the administration side with four MD's in three years the philosophy got clouded along the way. The club will come through it but it needs to be a bit cleverer on both the recruitment side and contract administration. Luke Brattan, James Donachie both were able to leave because of poor administration and others have left because of managerial preferences. The manager John Aloisi must decide if he is going to stay and if so must grow some proverbials. As I wrote recently players are using this club to get fit - Oar, Arana, Hervos, Devere and Holman to name a few. Now in the real world if you front up to a job and you are unable to get right into it you are quickly shown the door. I believe a long term plan needs to be initiated as soon as the coaching position is clarified. That should occur before the end of February in case the position becomes vacant. The coach must set in stone the type of players he requires and then the club must do its utmost to procure these players within of course the salary cap. Any gems that come out of the procurement must the be tied contractually to the club on varying length deals. jb you have signed players on and if like myself have paid transfer fees and you must have always put the club first because that money is hard to come by. It is not rocket science.

Theo Hingert, xxxx (or Bowle), North, Brown xxxx, Kristensen, Mckay Borrello, xxxx(or Holman), Oar No big deal. Just recruit a few. From 28 Jan to 11 Feb 2017, Brisbane Roar may have up to 5 matches in 15 days. Young players can have many chances.

Chopper- Have you considered that Roar's present run- on team has 7 players out of 11 all on the wrong side of 32 with 3 over 35. With rumours also floating around about Oar and De Vere considering offers from overseas and now Petratos announcing his departure the outlook for next season can't be described as promising for it means that up to 10 out of 11 will be in the veteran stage of their careers, or who may or may not have "moved on". You mention the youth team but from what I have been told Borello was a very successful central striker in the youth team but in 2 seasons has yet to feature in that position in the HAL.. !!!!! Cheers jb

Maybe some of the youth will get a game now and I cannot believe the hype surrounding Petratos. Sure he scored a howitzer free kick but if you put that against the times he had shots that flew well wide or over the bar and against the times he should of passed and didn't it all comes down to the kid with potential that never quite got there. Petratos is a squad player on average money and in my view easily replaced. We have a full squad of under 21 players in the youth team that are jumping out of their skins to be given a fair go. So if one or two average players depart it gives a chance for some of the cream to rise to the top.