Vince Rugari tweeted out last night something that made me shudder.
For those who can’t raise a finger to click on this link, the tweet helpfully reminded the world that it’s been nearly three weeks since it was reported the Mariners had an “in-principle” agreement with Usain Bolt for a trial.
A bit like a huntsman lingering in the corner of a room, I’d avoided looking at it for long enough to almost forget the Bolt saga existed.
Since the Bolt saga, a rolling boil that has simmered down tepidly and is now developing a skin, the Mariners of course have been smashed in the FFA Cup by Adelaide, and looked in desperate need of an actual marquee, not a novelty publicity stunt starting at striker.
And, if they’d like, they could look down the country to Melbourne to see what – we hope – a fine marquee choice looks like.
This tweet – literally, every journalist in The Age’s newsroom has a Tweetdeck page open with at least four full columns open, tweets flicking up and off the screen like an old stock ticker machine – apparently says Keisuke Honda, long rumoured Victory marquee beau, will be live streaming an announcement on the night of writing.
According to this thread Honda was twice asked whether he was going to an Australian club, and both times he claimed he couldn’t hear the question, and was fiddling with his earpiece, being interviewed from the Bahamas.
Hmm… we’ll put that oddness to one side, I suppose, for the moment.
If he does sign, only recently turned 32, and having been a part of Japan’s World Cup campaign – scoring and assisting in the finals, in very limited minutes – Honda will be a fine player with which to fill a marquee slot.
The Victory have lost a lot of players this off-season, many of them vital cogs in the Championship winning side of 2017-18. Obviously, Besart Berisha – last seen embracing Ange Postecoglou when their two teams met in the J-League a few days ago, with Berisha winning 4-1 – is a significant loss.
Besart Berisha in his time with the Melbourne Victory. (AAP Image/George Salpigtidis)
In Rhys Williams and James Donachie, Melbourne have lost their starting centre back partnership. And Leroy George, who made no attempt to leave gracefully, has also left a large creative hole, one Honda should ably fill.
So, there’s more to be done, but this is a fine start; Honda was a very effective attacker across all Mexican league and cup appearances last season for Pachuca, with 13 goals and 8 assists in 36 games.
When he really got rolling he rattled off a run where he scored or assisted in six consecutive league games. His ball striking is remarkable, and many of his best moments came from surging runs through the middle, capped by cold, purposeful finishing.
He ought to gel well with James Troisi, and should be able to teach Josh Hope a thing or two. Depending on whether the club sign a shiny new striker – they should be aiming to – Honda could be a sneaky bet to finish as the Victory’s top scorer.
Then, yesterday, Fox Sports reported that the Roar were close to signing Matthieu Flamini, former Arsenal midfielder and something of a tycoon.
Flamini barely played for Getafe last season, and is 34. Having co-founded a bio-tech company BFBiochemicals, he is poised to step into a very lucrative career in business after he retires, but he hasn’t retired yet.
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Flamini is a less attractive signing than Honda, to be frank, but it doesn’t appear as though he’d occupy a slot outside the cap, simply a foreign visa slot.
He’s older than Honda, he hasn’t played much, and one wonders exactly how Joe Caletti might feel were Flamini to be signed; having been injured for a huge portion of last season, Caletti, 19, is a diminutive, combative, scrapping central midfielder, just like Flamini.
John Aloisi was waxing lyrical in the wake of Australia’s World Cup exit about how young Australian strikers “need to be playing regular football” if we’re to solve the national team’s goal-scoring issues, for some reason failing to mention how he had imported an Italian striker last season who was pushing 40 years old.
Is John Aloisi putting his money where his mouth is? (AAP Image/David Crosling)
If Caletti wastes away on the bench in favour of Flamini, well, that would be a shame, regardless of how well Flamini does for Brisbane, who have also added Stefan Mauk to their midfield ranks.
It’s worth mentioning that, although Fox Sports reported it as almost complete, there have been conflicting reports dousing the Flamini mootings in cold water.
There are a number of teams who still need to pad out their squad with quality, and have spare slots available. The media frothing over Andres Iniesta, or Fernando Torres, or even Peter Crouch – not to mention Bolt – has sort of put a tacky patina over the whole exercise of chasing marquees, but there are a number of clubs who still need them.
As Bobo, or Thomas Broich, or Berisha, or Bruno Fornaroli have proven, a great marquee can propel a team into bold new arenas of success, regardless of whether or not their names pique the interest of the football-disinterested section of the public.
There are two-and-a-half months until the league season begins, so there’ll be plenty more marquee rumours to digest, or indeed taste, grimace and spit out.
Have a scan down the list of free agents, if you’d like to fuel your own marquee imaginings.
Samir Nasri, anyone? Who are some of your marquee candidates?
Neil
Guest
Because of their anti female and racist views my wife wanted to remove foxtel from our house, but we negotiated retaining the sports package to keep the A League which she also watches. So if the A League leaves foxtel so will we and probably get fetch, I have the Optus Sports App.
pete4
Guest
CCM giving Usain Bolt a 6 week trial is a win-win situation for them. Publicity stunt or not
Lionheart
Guest
Evan lives in Victoria Waz, and is thus naturally one-eyed, and just not capable of any research on non-Victorian clubs. Would he know what other strikers Roar has signed this year? Would he have looked? at their age? I wonder what he thinks about MV chasing Jamie, and msiing out, or of signing Corie Brown, yet another Roar player.
Arto
Guest
Can't see FFA/Foxtel paying any of the guys on that list - maybe at a strecth Yaya Toure or Patrice Evra, but that's it... Toure just turned 35, had 17 apps in all competitions for less than 900mins for a grand total of 2 assists from CM. Evra is even older at 37, had even fewer apps (14) for around the same amount of mins (approx. 850) and as a back had zero goals or assists. For comparison, ADP in his last season in Serie A played approx the same game time (900 mins, mostly as a sub), but was still more productive than the first 2 combined... Honda is the last 'name' marquee available for this season, so teams are going to have to og for a Bobo-type marquee - they'd be bonkers not to!
Rolly
Guest
Calling Optus coverage a flop is an exaggeration it only failed if you were streaming on a portable device.but that's been rectified I believe .if you had the fetch tV box the coverage was better than SBS coverage with no streaming issues .heaps more content than sbs the on demand stuff is brilliant .i have fetch tV for the EPL so I am glad the rest of the European games are on fetch tV it costs me no more. so much better than anything foxtel ever gave us and so much more cheaper than foxtel.i hope A league is next that's all that's missing .the new home of football .
Waz
Roar Rookie
Old news with the Champions League but good to see one broadcaster taking football seriously
Nick Symonds
Guest
NEWS - Optus secures rights to the UEFA Champions League after World Cup disaster - AUSSIE football fans will have their hearts in their mouths after Optus confirmed it won the rights to a globally renowned tournament. OPTUS has jumped back on the horse after its spectacular World Cup flop, securing the broadcast rights to the UEFA Champions League in Australia. The telecommunications company confirmed on Friday it has bagged the rights to show the elite competition, which pits the top sides in Europe against each other, as well as the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup for the next three years. The powerplay has added to Optus’s football diet, which also includes the broadcast rights to the English Premier League and the European Championships in 2020. It’s a bold move from Optus given the backlash it copped for a horror World Cup that saw some subscribers to the telco’s streaming services unable to watch games because of technical difficulties. - The commitment to broadcasting the Champions League shows Optus isn’t going to back down from its mission to become the home of football in Australia, even after the debacle that was the World Cup. CEO Allen Lew said during the World Cup crisis he was confident the brand would survive the reputational damage and was intent on maintaining a commitment to the round ball game in this country. Optus first waded into the football waters when it secured the rights to broadcast the English Premier League in 2015, snatching them away from Fox Sports. Earlier this year it successfully retained the rights to the popular competition for a further three seasons. - https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/optus-secures-rights-to-the-uefa-champions-league-after-world-cup-disaster/news-story/da145e4d00adf0a3aba9260096eb712e - Will the A-League be next on their list? http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6727-more-aussies-now-watching-a-league-than-premier-league-on-tv-201603222218
Nick Symonds
Guest
NEWS: Football's 'heart and soul' deserting the game amid governance gridlock - Australian football's on-going governance crisis is driving away those described as "the heart and soul" of the game. That's the warning from Rabieh Krayem, chairman of the Association of Australian Football Clubs representing the aspirations of 172 NPL teams across the country. Krayem claims many among the thousands of volunteers at grassroots level have had enough of the civil war between Football Federation Australia and football's myriad stakeholders and are withdrawing their services. According to Krayem, droves of the unpaid army who underpin the infrastructure at the foot of football's pyramid are fed up with the in-fighting over the composition of the game's Congress, with many already deserting the sport while others are about to. "You talk about the different parties, the players, the clubs the fans but you should never forget one of the biggest impacts (of this crisis) is the effect it's having on the volunteers," he said. "If we don't fix football we won't have any of these volunteers we rely on so much left in the game. "They are the heart and soul of the game and keep it ticking and we're in danger of losing them. - FULL STORY https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/football-s-heart-and-soul-deserting-the-game-amid-governance-gridlock
Redondo
Guest
Nilmar (if well) and Cheong-yong Lee for Sydney.
Fadida
Guest
It seems clubs are very much damned if they get a marquee, and damned if they don't. Nasri has had his ban extended so it won't be him.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Matthieu Flamini? yeah but nah, “something something timing wrong something” And Evan, your analysis and comment on Aloisi and strikers is at best incomplete at worst, one-eyed and off the mark. Yes last season Aloisi ran out a 38 year old Maccarone but you fail to mention Aloisi also gave significant game time to three young Australian strikers in D’Agastino, Skapetis and Gameiro. All three (young Australian strikers) were at best average and none of them, and I really mean none of them, were anywhere near the quality shown by Maccarone (and for the record, couldn’t match his fitness either!). And only the year before Aloisi led his line with two young Australian strikers in Borello and Maclaren - one went on to play in the Scottish top flight, the other has just been signed to the German top flight. Aloisi did his job well. And it’s not Aloisi’s fault the HAL can’t retain players like Maclaren and Borello, nor his fault the likes of Gameiro, Skapetis and D’Agastino can’t cut it when given the chance. Maybe Aloisi will fair better with Taggart this year?