Football clubs tend to go through different cycles throughout their existence, one thing is for certain though with the big clubs – the more money you have the likelihood of remaining successful is very high.
Dynasties don’t last forever though – a change of coach, players or even boardroom objectives can alter things in the blink of an eye.
Manchester United have struggled badly since their decade of dominance in the 90s while other giants like Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid are starting to feel the pinch of their massive player contracts.
In terms of the A-League though, the steady decline of one of the most powerful clubs; Melbourne Victory – has been hard to watch, even for fans of long-time arch rivals Adelaide United and Sydney FC.
For a club the size of victory to have finished second to bottom and last in the past two seasons has been an absolute disaster.
(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Poor decisions have cost players, coaches, boardroom members and fans memberships within this once great organisation – Victory needed a complete reset and there is no better coach in the A-League at rebuilding teams than Tony Popovic.
Popovic has had great success in the A-League with Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers before leaving both posts under acrimonious terms.
The European sojourns to Greece and Turkey didn’t go as well as planned and Popovic is now back in the A-League in charge of one of the biggest clubs – who have supported him with a large budget to become a powerhouse once again.
Popovic has taken hardly any time in axing players from this victory team that wouldn’t fit into his coaching style.
Much like the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, Popovic started the Brexit at Melbourne Victory with releases for all the experienced players that came from the UK: Ryan Shotton, Rudy Gestede, Jacob Butterfield, Callum McManaman as well as coaches Grant Brebner and Steve Kean.
At the other end of the age scale – Victory fans have however been left scratching their heads as talented youngsters Dalibor Markovic, Elvis Kamsoba and So Nishikawa were also let go without a fight to keep them.
In terms of players coming in, Popovic hasn’t had it all going his way though.
Marquee offers to Matthew Leckie, Craig Goodwin and Thomar Hemed didn’t come to fruition forcing Popovich to go back to the well by signing players he’s previously coached before – as well as players looking for a career resurgence
The defence will be completely different from last season with the singings of consistent A-League player like Stefan Nigro, Mark Hamill, Jason Geria and the return to Australia of prodigal son Jason Davidson as well as the enigmatic Matthew Spiranovic – who has been enjoying the sun in Croatia for the past 18 months since being club less.
Central midfield has been bolstered with the return from Greece of Joshua Brillante and VISA player Rai Marchan.
Marchan might not be a name familiar to most fans, but for anyone that is serious about the Football Manager video game series – They will be aware of the bargains you can buy from Andorra.
The front third has been bolstered by a player Popovic knows very well, Chris Ikonomidis who is looking to regain his form once his injury woes are under control – however a marquee #9 position is yet to be filled.
The victory has been heavily linked all winter with Australian goal machine Nikita Rukavytsya who had recently been plundering goals for fun in Israel as well as ex-Premier League striker Wilfred Bony
Popovic’s off season recruitment drive is by no means over – as this A-League giant looks set to rise up from the ashes like a phoenix in search of an A League championship victory next season
Justin Mahon
Roar Rookie
WIth the youth, women and community football heading to its new home and the A-League squad and wider football department being transformed, I expect a period of stabilization in performance ahead. Not winning trophies just yet, but the commercial scale of MVFC will again be exploited (local owners, local sponsors and a huge local following will always drive engagement better than petro-cash from dictators) and our club will find its voice once again. A lot of fans are very excited and engaged in recent times, and little of this has anything to do with the squad. Victory fans feel for the 1st time in years the club has figured out 'Who are we'....
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i feel i am probably a good person to talk about Elvis, since hes an adelaide boy and i was the one who identified his talent. wonderfully gifted player, at his age and diminutive stature he ran an absolute muck in the local leagues in Adelaide and even though he was training with United he never officially signed. I was very vocal about the club not signing him and my opinion was also held in high regard by the coach who departed Adelaide that season and elvis was in discussions in joining him at his next coaching gig in the a league, but the move never happened. Elvis to me is not suited as a big club player, its the same thing i said was one of his weak point as as teenager - in that he seemed to go missing in big games. He thrives at a club where the pressure is minimal, victory was a bad move and sydney is even worse. Elvis might be earning the most money of his career with sydney, however he wont start and has signed for a club that has a bad repuation with african australian players - but like i said, money talks regardless of my personal view of the sydney move and the melbourne one before that, we still keep in contact. (i sent him a text the other day congratulating him on the move) there is 100% a solid player there, but he needs to find a coach that loves him at a smaller mid sized team.
Winter A League is Awesome
Roar Rookie
Maybe they are priming Kruise for the same role.
Winter A League is Awesome
Roar Rookie
Victory trains in a park. It's no different to a Sunday league team. Plus playing at Marvel says it all really.
Mark
Guest
Kamsoba?? Victory have achieved a double bonus there - they’ve improved by releasing him, and weakened a rival at the same time by that team signing him.
Tigertown
Guest
Indeed, I am very much going to enjoy Popovic’s battles with his own brother-in-law at Macarthur. See, both lads married sisters. Talk about choosing sides!
Justin Mahon
Guest
Nonsense. While we are set to (re)announce the $21m Youth Academy, W-League and community program facilities, we have NEVER sought funding nor developed plans to take the A-League squad away from AAMI Park where the football department is co-located with the administration, sports science and commercial opperations (and now all games). Olympic/AAMI Park is our home and the sooner City relocate out to the outer east the better.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i tell it it how is. :happy: 3 a league coaches were very vocal about east coast bias this past a league season, its as real as the man utd bias with refs in the 90s and real madrid/barcelonas stranglehold of la liga decisions.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i highly recommend investing some time in football manager, some absolute bargains from andoora
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
I remember England playing Andorra in some sort of qualifier about 12 or so years ago. There was only one professional player in the team. Needless to say, they were pretty hopeless, but were still nil-all at HT, before England edged them out about 3-0.
briandrian
Guest
ive been really enjoying your contributions andy, you seem very well informed and knowledgeable and that is highly appreciated. but please stop the east coast bias thing, it makes you come across as a conspiracy theory crank and undermines your credibility. cheers bd
Grem
Roar Rookie
He seems to be a coach that players either love or hate - Tony Sage's comments were bitter/ interesting? He appears to have a "cult" following with players who want to be coached by him and those players do noticeably lose body fat and play for the full 90 minutes. He obviously drives his players and fitness is non negotiable. I'm sure he will do well and hopefully many fans will return. The Melbourne derby might actually be a real battle again and it will be great to see two strong clubs battling it out.
Dennis
Guest
I think he will do well. Always a good reader of the ability of his players, I do fancy MV for a top four spot. The defence will be well organised for sure and he will play a counter attacking style. As with all Poppa teams, the two centre backs will seek to dominate everything at the back. Really good manager I must say who went from foundation to #1 in Asia. His striker choices did somewhat cloud his recruitment but overall will do well at MV. For the sake of the league we need a strong MV and WSW following. I hope they both return with fan numbers and good results.
Winter A League is Awesome
Roar Rookie
Yeah fair point. Forgot about that. But you would hope that the club does well after his stay like Arnie and Sydney.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
didnt achieve anything? lol they won the premiership comfortably past much more fancied opponents (sydney/victory/adelaide) with the lowest goals conceded and unusually for a poppa team, most goals scored , Poppa also picked up coach of the year lol He did amazingly well at glory, only towards the end of his spell like at wanderers did things turn out awful
Winter A League is Awesome
Roar Rookie
Overall, until Victory builds a Traning Set Up, I can't take their claim as being a big club anymore. They used to be when there were less clubs but not anymore.
Winter A League is Awesome
Roar Rookie
He didn't really achieve anything at Perth besides his sons in the starting 11
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i mentioned on here that a couple months ago that they were sniffing around Rukavytsya, as adelaide also had made an enquiry for his services but couldnt offer anywhere near what his agent wanted. The transfer whispers started a couple weeks after that lol Ruka's had a great financial offer from a greek first division club so that could be the end of the interest. don't forget hemed to victory was almost a done deal until the wanderers offered a couple hundred thousand more late in negotiations and his head was turned.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
his teams are always very disciplined defensively and normally play a counter attacking style i dont expect that to change with the victory job, the team will be very functional and players probably wont stray to much out of thier positions the victory job is a massive one, id go as far as saying its the biggest job hes had in the league based on victorys trophies, member base and finances. (even though all 3 of those have declined in recent years) lots of pressure on poppa especially after the greek debacle, lets see how he handles it.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Thats Popa's style ... ie functional...