Football Season Guide

The saga at the club rages on as this will be their third or fourth season in which the owners have tried to sell the club without any success. Curiously, boss Papas resigned a good month or so after the last A-League campaign ended. The club said he made it clear that he wanted to work abroad again (it took some time, but he eventually ended up working in Thailand) but it’s believed he was frustrated with the inability of the owners to sell the club. Former Sydney FC Assistant Manager Robert Stanton is Papas’ replacement, who has no experience as a manager at this level. In terms of personnel, things are bad. They lost some big players in the pre-season, including talismanic midfielder Thurgate. Whenever things were bad, he’d step up and bail them out in some capacity - but not anymore. Fellow midfielder Al-Taay will be missed more than they let on too; he stood in for O’Neill seriously well so CM has immediately become substantially weaker. GK Duncan won’t be missed because he was erratic, and Weier was more than his equal. However, losing striker Mikeltadze, winger Sotirio, and CB Jurman were all substantial issues, although they really should be able to cope with the latter given that they already have Cancar and Natta in their ranks. They’ve signed former striker Stamatelopoulos on a free transfer to replace Mikeltadze, who was never all that good even at his best, and the fact he’s remained available for free for so long speaks volumes about his level. Mauragis returns from his loan spell to bolster their options at LB, which is helpful enough. Their ‘big’ arrival was midfielder Berthomier from Valenciennes; unclear how he’ll adapt to essentially carrying the team. One signing that was very good (somewhat beneath the radar) was Dowse from Perth Glory. He’s one of the best crossers in the division, whether at left-back or on the left wing, and it was surprising that Glory let him leave. They’re going to find it really tough to score goals this season, as per usual. Will likely start slowly due to losing a number of regulars. Expect a strong work ethic because they’ll have little else to offer. Would love to make the play-offs but very unlikely, not without major reinforcements; they’ve taken too many punts pre-season because they’ve been forced to do so.