Warren Joyce is a genius, and after dropping the most popular player in Melbourne City’s history, he’s won the public relations battle now and forever.
I’m just kidding, of course. City’s 3-0 win over the Newcastle Jets on Sunday evening will do little to paper over the growing fractures in the club’s façade.
However, there are those who believe that the only way the A-League will prosper is if we all say something positive, so well done to Joyce for tuning out the noise and getting his team to play as if Sunday’s clash was business as usual.
But for those of us who live in the real world – and ten years to the day since I started writing for The Roar, I’m still only interested in calling things as I see them – Melbourne City have a genuine image problem.
Or perhaps we’re supposed to ignore the fact that a crowd of just 6,013 bothered to turn up at AAMI Park.
And that City’s home end – the Melburnians – staged a protest during the game.
And that their inaugural player of the year and subsequent club employee, Clint Bolton, bagged them on SEN Afternoons in the build-up to Sunday’s game.
“It’s not a Bruno Fornaroli issue, it’s a Warren Joyce issue,” Bolton told SEN’s Brett Phillips on Friday afternoon.
“Ultimately, when Warren Joyce fronts up to the media and gives excuses around certain players as to why they’re not playing which don’t add up, the focus should be on Warren Joyce and not Bruno Fornaroli in this situation.”
Tell us what you really think, Bootsa!
The state of City’s plight was probably best summed up by commentator Brenton Speed when he revealed that Fox Sports’ live feed was being censored before being transmitted onto the big screens at AAMI Park.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
City, it seems, weren’t happy with images of Fornaroli sitting in the stands being beamed out to their disgruntled supporter base.
“Credit to Melbourne City for still playing Happy Together” quipped Twitter user Declan Rooney of the club’s suddenly ironic walk-out song.
For all the original concerns about City monopolising the A-League once the City Football Group bought the club, the opposite has essentially proved true.
Instead of becoming an A-League juggernaut, City are nothing more than the bottom rung of a global chain whose focus is concentrated on Abu Dhabi and Manchester and New York.
They’re Manchester City-lite – except without any Manchester City players.
And Melbourne City’s irrelevance is exemplified by the fact that after more than 120 appearances for New York City, Spanish legend David Villa has found himself a new home.
Is he going to add to his four loan appearances in the A-League? Of course not.
He’s just joined Japanese club Vissel Kobe.
If Fornaroli does ultimately move on – and it’s worth acknowledging that the Uruguayan was hardly a household name before City plucked him from Danubio – then the club should move heaven and earth to sign a genuine marquee striker.
Because if they don’t, it will signal what many have long suspected to be true: that the City Football Group don’t particularly care about what’s going on in Melbourne – unless, of course, they can move on more players like Aaron Mooy and Daniel Arzani.
(Photo by Jason Heidrich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Full credit, at least, to the likes of Riley McGree, Luke Brattan and Lachlan Wales – who all scored superb individual goals against the Jets.
It’s just a shame so few people saw them.
Quite a few more will have watched Melbourne Victory thump Western Sydney Wanderers 4-0 on Saturday night, and Keisuke Honda’s post-match interview arguably summed up the difference between the two Melbourne clubs.
When asked by Michael Zappone why he continued to press in the 92nd minute of the game, Honda summed it up perfectly.
“It doesn’t matter to me about the result. It’s important how we can make people happy here, because I think football is entertainment.”
City were entertaining enough against the Jets. But right now they resemble a club ready to throw their full support behind the captain of a sinking ship.
Chirs
Guest
I spend 10 years in the UK following what was mainly a championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers. I think the quality of the championship is well above that in the A-League. Wolves have come up to the Premier League this year beaten Chelsea, drawn (not parking the bus) with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool. I could never see Melbourne Victory being able to do that.
MarkfromCroydon
Roar Pro
Do teams need to have an 'identity'? If so, does the identity need to be an attacking identity? I suppose it depends what you like in football. Personally, the more football I watch, the more I enjoy the dour, defensive tactical battles. I've actually had some great joy watching 0-0 matches where I've appreciated the great defensive work of particular players, or teams acting as a solid defensive unit in a single organism type manner. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
It's in my blood Chris. I fire off complaints fairly regularly, hoping that one day they might change.
chris
Guest
LH - you need to give msm sports programs away. All they care about are provincial sports and cricket. Its embarrassing listening them rabbit on about something they know nothing nor care about.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
No. At least they know what they're talking about with cricket, and the negative comments can be supported. Nothing they said in the two minutes they devoted (?) to football can be justified. Not one of them had a clue what they were talking about. Noteable that in their next show they gave football a decent hearing with a panellist who knew the sport. They even discussed the Fornaroli issue with a degree of knowledge.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
About 18 minutes of the show was dedicated towards discussing how bad things are with cricket. Arguably that far outweighs the negativity directed at soccer.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
The problem is simple: The interest in the A-League is minute resulting in Mike's article still being at the top of the page after 3 days. Someone find Evan so he can write a decent article about the football for us to discuss.
Matthew
Roar Rookie
Why wasnt the worry there when the CFG bought out Melb Heart and it became Melb City? Oh thats right.. people wanted to see a new club with new marquee players. They didnt realise that it made no sense for the CFG team to do this. Football in Australia is the 3rd or 4th code and this may never change in our lifetimes. They were never going to make money out of this investment, there isnt the money there to make. THey did it to create a feeder club in a far flung location. Which is now what you have with Melb City. To an extent you already have that with CCM, but their record is more like a strike of lightning every so often. They survive because occasionally they can tell a player. We need to ask ourselves, do we want new teams if they are just going to be feeder clubs for somewhere else?
chris
Guest
WAZ - agreed that the ratio between football and other codes/content must stay about the same. And as far as the figures remaining private, is neither here nor there. The standard used across the board are the OzTam figures. Are the OzTam figures from a sample of 10k odd boxes and 2,000 odd for pay tv as opposed to the million plus boxes that Foxtel gets its data from, as accurate? You be the judge. Yes no doubt the viewing numbers for football are down, but the market is now fragmented and this is being addressed as to how to better capture total viewing audiences etc.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
hang in Sam. It'll happen.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
https://www.abc.net.au/sport/offsiders/sunday-25-november-full-program/10552810 They discuss A League at around the 23 minute mark, by the 25th minute they have completely misread the Fornaroli issue and blamed the FFA for the state of Spotless Stadium for the WSXW match, kicked in with TV ratings and concluded that there may be more problems ahead than Lowy indicated. That's it, in two minutes a National sports show has completely misunderstood, misread and misstated the weekend round of A League. No research at all by the 'sports journalists' on the panel, who just couldn't wait to kick football in the tummy. No mention of the football either, by the way. While none of them normally associate with football, as they are discussing the subject they could have at least done some research. This is typical of what the non-football 'sports journalists' serve up week in and week out. Hoorah for Bill & Bozz.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Nemesis, I met somebody, casually, recently who worked for CFG. I was surprised to hear that they have an Asian headquarters so to speak, with a staff based in Singapore that look after their Asia operations, including Australia. They're a proper business, I realised that after a brief discussion.
Sam
Guest
I’m a Melbourne City fan and the fact that we can’t get big name players has perplexed me. Especially when Sydney can get Del Piero and Victory can get Honda. We have a network that encompasses Manchester City, Girona FC, Yokohama F Marinos, New York City FC and another club in Uruguay, yet we can’t sign good players? Really? Why not send some exciting Man City youth players down here? Imagine if Jaden Sancho played here on loan instead of leaving for Dortmund on a free. Imagine sending Phil Foden here on loan - he’s close to leaving Man City if rumours are to be believed. It frustrates me to no end to see a club with so much resources and connections fall short time and time again. I hate to say this but we’re pretenders.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I'm surprised that you, of all people, would be suggesting that only people who lead boring lives have time to watch the A-League.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
RF, I went to a Championship match in England recently, Norwich v Millwall, and it was a great game, seven goals scored, five of them from the 80th minute and two in extra time. It was a classic, privilege for me to be there. But here's the kicker - the standard was no better than the A League. Norwich is likely to be back in the EPL next year, but I believe several A League teams including MV, Roar and a few others are up to their standard if not better. And we get our fair share of exciting games like that too.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Chris, Fair enough, but that means the figures can’t be debated as they are private numbers. Relatively speaking though the ratio between football and other codes/content must stay about the same as a similar uplift must apply to them also. And irrespective of absolute numbers the broadcast viewing totals are in steep decline for football, a trend which needs to be understood.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Well that is your opinion & you have every right to it. I just tend to disagree. I too have played to a decent level & continue to coach. I have followed football back to the 70s & have a fond memory of a Brian Clough's Derby & till today despite them dropping to even at one stage to the 3rd tier of English football, this is my team. I understand the A-League has had it's fair share of problems, primary with poor administration & poor marketing in recent years. The VAR certainly hasn't helped. The lack of insight & vision with our leaders certainly major issues. However where I differ is on the football field, I think the standard has improved over the years, the lack of expansion meeting teams playing each other too often hurts, but I disagree with the standard of play. The one touch football played by many teams is great. We don't have hoof ball that was common pre Ange's BR days.
chris
Guest
No WAZ they use their raw data and share with potential advertisers. But I'm not here to convince you one way or another. I'm just telling you what I know and how it works at a different level to the "official OzTam" figures.
Nemesis
Guest
All this doom & gloom about ALeague. Competition about to crash. TV dollars will be $0 once this contract expires. Thankfully the people with big money to spend aren't yet aware of this. Only the astute business minds of The Roar's Pessimists know what's going on. No doubt these pessimists on this forum are much more wealthy & successful in business people than the people behind the $70-00 million capital that's still eagerly waiting to buy into the ALeague. The millionaires are all wrong. The pessimists watching their pennies know what's what.
RF
Roar Rookie
Fair to say that it's different when you grow up with a team ingrained into your psyche and culture. The A League has a long, long way to go before your comparison is valid, Waz.