Football Season Guide

Were supremely disappointing last season, keeping in mind how good they were the season prior. They finished 10th, and it was warranted - completely lost their way, stopped scoring goals, and couldn't find a way back out of their malaise. This season doesn't look any better; in fact, it looks worse. Ownership issues have led to financial concerns. Damon Hanlin is unofficially backing the club, which has led to him weighing in on more decisions. The biggest was the appointment of Labinot Haliti as a director, who has already repeatedly clashed with manager Mark Jackson. They were also investigated by the Australian FA for late salary payments in September. It seems Jackson is living on borrowed time for now. As a result of the financial problems, some of their most talented emerging players have left - Jai Rose, Shumba Mutokoyi, and Jared Williams, for example. They also lost star wide player Doka, regular attacker Kuol, defensive lynchpin Kaltak, and a number of rotation options. The inbound list is substantially shorter because of the afore-mentioned financial problems. Veteran shot-stopper Redmayne has arrived to challenge youngster Peraic-Cullen for a starting berth. Donachie has arrived at CB; a risky signing due to his injury-prone nature. Promising defender Kennedy has joined and could become a regular. That's all they've done though. Their list of match-winners has become exceptionally thin, especially in the final third. They still have some good youngsters to call upon in Brandtman, di Pizio, Faisal, de Lima, and especially Haimes but they're asking a lot of them because it's it's not them, it's nobody when it comes to chance creation/chance conversion. Winger Theoharous and battering ram Edmondson are their only seasoned heads in attack now. The icing on the cake is that they're likely to start the season without Sainsbury, who has an Achilles tendon injury. Him being injured is not an unfamiliar sight. However, without him (and the departed Kaltak) they're missing the foundation of the only thing they got right last season. There is no easy solution or quick fix here. Unless they've magically found a golden generation of youngsters that they're yet to sell, they're in trouble this season.