Ufuk Talay should be Melbourne Victory's man

And now we know - they have Popovic. The clean out and rebuild will start in July. It will be interesting to see and I would put money on them now to feature in next year's finals.

I hope MV don't raid another A-L club of their coach.... There are good coaches out their and the two local Melbourne coaches seem good choices...

If they pick Walter Zenga they'll never live it down.

I think MV could have been a big force if they had could have utilised their good youngsters and had kept Barbarouses, he and Toivenen worked well together and that would have suited having Kurz as coach. Kamsoba is the worst player to combine with Toivonen , you really need a fast striker get on to the end of Kamsobas poor final balls Toivonen . The biggest problem in Australia with the A-league coaches is they are too chummy with older players and let them dawdle and slack off, Kurz might have been a rabble rouser and harsh on youth but he didnt seem to care that his older players were slacking off. At Adelaide his older players were all workers even of they were older and slower which is why he succeded there. Melbourne Victory three best players last season were Lesiotis, Hope and Lauton. Lesiotis in particular was fast fit and physical. keeping these three fit and mobile players and playing them for 90 minutes thats what would set them up for success . They should move Traore to defensive mid with Lesiotis and Lauton as the full backs Storm Roux , Broxham, their two young centerbacks need to be shown the door Anderson the other fool Dylan Ryan maybe they could use Barnett cannot be worse than those 2. The real secret for them to succeed is to make sure McNaman and Kruse never start a game. Mcnanaman I think can do a job for the last 20-30 minutes and Kruse for the last 10-15. Brimmer needs to be an attacking mid/second striker cannot be relied on defensively, when he gets tired he needs to be replaced. The real issue I see with the rest is that Kamsoba cannot work with Gestede so if Kamsoba starts then Folami should be the striker. The headless chicken Butterfield then can start causing an effect, having a solo headless chicken is not going to work. If Rojas is not fit move Bello up to right wing. I dont know why Lattanzio is being played either at the moment looks young and weak needs to develop physically. All this hysteria about MV not performing is ridiculous, when you let old players dawdle and do nothing and then scream at young players your never going to succeed. In fact Merrick and Muscat also fell into this trap at the end of their tenure.

Walter Zenga also in the running apparently

Heres a little fact about this season, Talay ask for more money and the club said no, this changed when DeVere got injured but it more or less was his paycheck going to Taylor as the (Injury)replacement. This would not have happened at Melb Victory where money is no issue. As you can see with the Nixs squad its quiet basic with the kids being the standout besides Davila and Ball. He is def the right coach to go to Victory however where does that leave the Nixs? The days of being a deadbeat club with no future/no licence is dead and buried. A stepping stone club for wanna be coaches it still may be. They also dont get a spot in the ACL which can be a good thing but for a Australian coach that wants to test them self in Asia then maybe not.

There has been something in the waters in adelaide for the past 4-5 years (and its not covid haha) The club is stocked in terms of attacking players and goalkeepers comfortably for the next half a decade, the talent in each age group for these positions is absurd. defenders and midfielders not so much unfortunately, i believe sydney and brisbane are set in both those categories though. Jay is a tidy little player, unfortunately he never got that late teenage boy trait in a height spurt required for the position he wants to play (I made reference to coaches i’ve dealt with wanting players above a certain height in a couple of key positions in my article). Even with our young midfield stocks running thin; d’arrigo and (formerly) gomulka are both technically better players in his position, i dont think adelaide were ever that keen to bring him home when he left the roar. He’s doing ok with victory, i’m pleased with any kid from adelaide that does well football wise

Adelaide lost 13 but clearly had youth ready to go. What happened to Mike Barnett's boy ?

Mick Valkanis be half a chance?

To go from an assistant to the top job. Let's not forget Victory are an extremely well resources club by A-League standards and can pull big crowds.

JA is well deserving of a head coaching role in the a league, he has done his time in revolutionising the game in Victoria. He bleeds football and more people of this calibre need to be in top level positions within our sport. the question is, would he jump ship from western united to victory though?

From what i saw in training in Adelaide, he was very harsh and confrontational with Australian players (in particular the train on youngsters) reegan had a running battle with kurz at many sessions, i thought there would be punches thrown on multiple occasions; but it never eventuated. Kurz was very chummy with the likes of ilso, boland, jakobsen etc. But each coach has 'favourites' at their respective clubs. I'm not a coach, so i can’t say what is right or wrong with different coaching styles from across the world. But from seeing dutch, spanish, german and australian coaches come and go through Adelaide; i have noticed australian players can become quite uncomfortable with european training methods. allot of that can be related to how professional it is in europe compared to australia and i think australias hard pitches really play a big deal as well. You look at all the soft tissue injuries clubs were getting when there was a non australian coach in place, coincidence or not?

I think you bang on the money there about local Melbourne coaches & the those Pappas & Anastasiadis would be excellent choices, especially Pappas.

That's interesting Andy as he had good success with Adelaide. The players obviously bought into his ways. You would think any group of professional A League players would buy into double sessions and tactical discussions, especially if they want to further their career.

Victory at their best had Victorian coaches. (Albeit Merrick, Ange and Muscat all being born overseas) Poppa and Talat just don't seem the right culturalfit for me, nor was Magilton. Kurz with more time may have worked out as he was cut from Muscats cloth. Id be tempted to go with John Anastasiadis, if they can get him Arthur Pappas. Culturally better fits and more able to galvanise a fractured organisation.

Talay ticks all the boxes for me as a coach. Hes young, Australian, plays reasonably good attacking football, plays youth and seems to have a good eye in finding players (young and older). Seems stern but fair as well. If he makes the move it will be purely for financial reasons and to have his family based in australia again (instead of NZ, except this season it was Wollongong). He is building something nice with wellington This victory job will be a complete reset of the club which wont get done in 1 season, will the club give the next coach 2 years to get them back to the top is the question? I don’t think people realise the rebuild that needs to happen with victory, it is a full rebuilt to the level that Newcastle will have to do and perth in the next year or 2. These things take time. Pay out all the OAPs, usher Broxham into retirement; id even go as far as trying to move kruse on. I would not be surprised to see them jettison over 10 players at seasons end (Adelaide had 13 leave last season) It starts with there youth set up, which needs a drastic overhaul. I know for a fact 2 eastern european clubs are monitoring markovic (who ive said all season they need to give a run of 5 or 6 games) he can play anywhere across the back four (I think central or left back would be his spots though) to lose him to another Melbourne team is a hammer blow. Bello and nishikawa have great potential as defenders, but they need several games in a row otherwise they’ll leave victory. This season has been over for victory for months, play the kids!!!!!

Sydney were 100% in for Kurz after he left us; (over being given an ultimatium to play more kids or see you later) Kurz i believe was told he would have a lot more money to spend with victory (that didnt happen) and he was blocked by adelaide from taking 3 or 4 players (armientos family had already started to get ready for the move) internally the board thought he would be a bit more charismatic and reserved, but he is incredibly stern in the media and can be very icy. I didnt have a problem with as a coach; even though my dealings with him didnt go that great. I'd given him recommendations on several players that he chose to overlook time and time again whilst at adelaide. Coaches can be quite funny as i mentioned in my article He riled alot of victory players up with his training methods. Australian players arent used to intense double sessions and lengthy tactical discussions; if you dont buy into the "Cult of Kurz" you will fail. The changing room downed tools and that was it. Another coach gone due to player power

Guillermo wont coach in the a league again, his job with barcelona is amazing. If in some alternative universe where he was to coach in the a league again , it wouldnt be with the victroy. Guillermos passion is youth developement, something victory as a club have regressed on for many years

Have you ever heard the State of Origin song - That's in Queensland? We could start a new song for Andy - George Timothou, Tomi Juric and Joe Colletti were born in Sydney and that's in Adelaide, Ryan Strain was born in London and that's in Adelaide, Juande and Amor were born in Madrid and that's in Adelaide, etc.

I hope he stays at the Phoenix too but reckon Talay is exactly what the Victory need going forward (he's better option than Popovic, Aloisi)