The stories you may have missed: A week in the A-League
We have come to the end of another week in the A-League with the escape from Victoria, shenanigans over at FFA HQ and Mile Jedinak’s retirement dominating the headlines. But as always there’s a lot of news which missed out on the limelight. Luckily for you I use my Sydney Morning Herald free articles so you don’t have to. From July 5th to July 12th, here’s the stories which may have slipped past you.
The FFA just could not escape drama this week. The big headline is the coronavirus caused cancellation of the 2020 FFA Cup. Alongside the NPL final series - which is basically the winners of the state leagues playing each other - the FFA Cup was canceled to give the powers that be “time to focus on future campaigns.” This was going to be the only FFA Cup before the new Fox-FFA deal ran out, and I (along with other commentators) had speculated this could have been where the FFA trialled a new streaming service in an environment with significantly less risk. Guess not. But in a handy segue the FFA actually had an opportunity to get their own streaming service six years ago but declined the chance. It’s food for thought given how a FFA owned streaming service have affected the recent Fox negotiations. Also interesting how such a story comes at a time of speculation around such a service… Elsewhere the FFA have fired a warning shot at Newcastle Jets owner Martin Lee, saying the Chinese owner needs to invest in his club or have his license stripped from him. The Jets do appear to be edging towards a deal with a Sydney based buyer so it could be a race against time. Will Newcastle change hands before the FFA pull the plug? They have done it in the past with Nathan Tinkler…
Beyond the farcical escape from Victoria, Melbourne Victory look to be closing in on a new head coach. Traianos Dellas is the name on everyone’s lips. Who? Dellas is a fairly well known name throughout Greece having been an integral cog in their Euro 2004 win. But how is he as a manager? Tough to say. Dellas was the man behind AEK Athens’ rise throughout the leagues following financial difficulty and relegation, but the second and third tiers of Greek football are where most of his career wins occurred. Stints at Atromitos Athen and Panetolikos (both in the first tier) haven’t gone so well - Dellas averaged 1.55 and 1.23 points per game respectively according to transfermarkt - and the man is yet to manage outside of his homeland. Reportedly the 44-year-old has beat out competition from current Wellington Phoenix head coach Ufuk Talay. According to the story above it was due to concerns of how to remove him from the year left on Phoenix manager's contract, although I’m personally not convinced Talay wants to leave Wellington. The man himself did also dismiss the reports as “speculation” in a recent interview with Andrew Voerman.
There’s actually been a smattering of interviews with Phoenix stars this week although none were done by me. I’m a terrible journalist, I know. Liberato Cacace chatted about his future which seems increasingly uncertain as overseas clubs circle. There’s reported interest from Belgium (although not from Kevin Muscat’s club) as well as the Netherlands. It’s understandable why there’s interest as Cacace has been the best fullback in the league over the past few seasons however the problem is not if such a move will happen, but when. The Europeans are keen to have the teenager come as soon as possible but currently there is still an A-League trophy to be won. Sticky situation. Ulises Dávila meanwhile talked to SBS about leaving pandemic stricken Mexico for Australia. Full credit to the bloke as leaving his newborn must absolutely suck, but it’s a testament to his commitment to the Nix. Ka pai, Ulises. Jason Pine also spoke to Nix youngster Sam Sutton, but about what I don’t know. It’s premium content and I’m yet to make a cent off my writing so I’m not paying for a Herald subscription. If I don’t get paid for my journalism, no one does. Anyway to round out Wellington’s section they beat the Western Sydney Wanderers 3-0 in a friendly. Matti Steinmann, Jaushua Sotirio and Luke DeVere all got on the score sheet. Not the names you would expect to see.
Also, Nix General Manager David Dome was on the Total Football podcast this week.
Some interesting stuff is also coming out of the Brisbane Roar: They’ve announced they will be building a “Regional Centre of Excellence” on the Fraser Coast. This has gotten caught up in local politics with the mayor saying it justifies the $55 million spent on the Fraser Coast Sports Precinct. Reportedly the Roar’s centre of excellence will bring 6500 people to Fraser if Australian local politics is the sort of thing you’re interested in. Over in the UK Robbie Fowler - who never apologised to Nerisa - is looking at the Birmingham City job. Not much to say there other than he should have apologised to Nerisa. But Fowler isn’t the only one abandoning Brisbane with on loan midfielder Aiden O’Neill returning to Burnley. However, he’s being tracked by Melbourne City as a replacement for Denis Genreau who himself is off to Macarthur.
Transfer talk: Beyond O’Neill, Dellas, Talay and Cacace, Bayern Munich star Javi Martinez has been linked with a move to Aussie which is exciting as hell. According to Marca, Martinez has achieved everything with Bayern and wants to move on to either the MLS or Australia. He’s mentioned being interested in going down under a couple years back although that was in a travel context. If we’re using travel quotes to justify a transfer this rumour gets the raised eyebrow from me, but getting hyped over transfers is part of being a football fan and the idea of Martinez in the A-League is pretty fun to think about. So get hyped, but without expectations.
Adelaide United have also promoted Dakota Ochsenham (what a name) to the first team. Not really a transfer but the club are treating it as such so it gets a mention here. Don’t expect to see him starting soon however; Paul Izzo has the starting position on lock.
Peak A-League (ignoring the escape from Victoria): In what may have led to Ochsenham’s promotion, former United goalie Isaac Richards has decided to out do Joe Champness and has switched from football to MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). The A-League never fails to deliver.
In second place, this image of City head coach Erik Mombaerts looking like a hit man also spawned some great memes on SokkahTwitter;
While it’s not this past week, I recently wrote an article ranking the top ten Peak A-League moments. Shameless self promotion, I know.
Interviews, interviews, and more interviews: While I’ve already discussed some of the Phoenix ones there were tones of interviews everywhere this week. Bruce Djite and Kyah Simon talked about racism in Australian football with ESPN in what’s both a really good and really important read, Tribal Football spoke to Jets head coach Carl Robinson on what drew him to the A-League and gives a good look into a newcomer’s first impressions of Australian football, The Roar have a long form discussion with Newcastle captain Nigel Boogard, Jacob Tratt has a yarn on what the NSW hub is like on Perth Glory’s website, and Dom Bossi chatted to Ben Warland who has a chance to play again thanks to odd timing of this year’s competition.
Two more stories to finish us off: Recently retired Kiwi custodian Glen Moss has joined Macarthur as their goalkeeping coach. Exciting to see a Kiwi move into the coaching space in what’s hopefully the first step in a long and fruitful career. Meanwhile the clubs in the ACL could be playing without break until July with the AFC penciling in the rest of the Champions League group stages in October - during the A-League off season. Given domestically the 2020/21 season will probably be beginning in December, this could produce constant hence potentially dangerous football for the Victory, Glory, and Sydney.
That’s all for this week. Give myself or Total Football a yell on twitter if there’s a story we missed and I’ll try to promote it somewhere. Otherwise, not sure when this article will happen again. If there’s demand it may become a weekly thing.
