The Roar Deal

Glory to sign Amaral... again...

apaprently not quite satisfied with the hiding they recived from Adelaide on the weekend, Glory have decided to add a touch of mediocrati and sluggishness to the team. It's not like it went very well the first time 

Half Time Heroes - Out today

Open publication - Free publishing - More w-league

 

The first edition of Half Time Heroes is out and it is full (45 pages!) to the brim of content from the A-League's best bloggers. You can sign up for the Fanzine at John's roar blog A Seat in the A-League among others.

Hibernation

You may have noticed... The Roar Deal is taking a bit of a break. TRD will be back when the preseason starts to ramp up, in the mean time you can still get your dose of Roar goss at John's Blog A Seat in The A-League. Also take a peek at the new Fury blog North QLD Fury - The Journal (boo hiss ;).

Cheers

Ed

A-League Salary Cap again

Some folk seem to want to make the A-League just like the NRL or the AFL. Yep, this is another rant about the salary cap. Previously we have discussed how the cap ensures that all clubs are equally rubbish. Now we are concerned that the salary cap is preventing teams from evolving their own personalities and identities.

The A-League hype machine has for several years now, been desperately trotting out the line that Sydney FC is the “glamour” club of the league – Bling FC. This strategy is designed to throw in some old fashioned class rivalry to spice up the relationship between SFC and their nearest rivals in Newcastle and Gosford, as well as intensify the atmosphere of the Sydney/Melbourne “Derby”. The strategy aims to align SFC’s image with that of its host city – glitzy, flashy, expensive and vain. We should love to hate them (and we do).

By contrast the Mariners are painted as the worker day heroes of the league, their every victory lauded and their consistent “overachievement” met with equally consistent yet barely credible surprise.

The both teams' personas are completely artificial and upon closer examination, totally absurd. The Mariners overachievement is not nearly as surprising when you consider that they operate under the same wage structure as Sydney FC. Neither is it surprising that far from being showy and flashy, the Bling actually play a pretty stodgy brand of football, dull by comparison to most toher A-League teams.

Imagine if Sydney were allowed to unleash the purse strings of their famous and genuinely wealthy owners and pay some big stars to turn out. John Kosmina in Dolce Gabana sun glasses is still John Kosmina. Watching Farina’s kids beat the bling out of a team which genuinely reflected Sydney’s position as the high rolling financial capital of Oz would add immeasurably to the already considerable pleasure involved in watching Sydney FC loose. At the moment the pleasure is tempered by the fact that, as much as we want to believe the fairytale, deep down we know the paradigm is contrived.

What’s the fun of being the underdog on an even playing field?

A-League Salary Cap

Proponents of the A-League’s salary cap claim that it keeps the competition exciting by ensuring an even playing field. These small minded bean counters try to crush our dreamer spirits by insisting that, for the good of the game, all teams should be equally rubbish. They claim that the Australian sporting public won’t turn out to see a team unless it has a good chance of winning the league.

Newcastle Jets sign Edmundo Zura

Now this is more like it. A full ten years younger than Glory's Amaral and with recent international experience, Zura sounds like he could be just the kind of signing the A-League needs. The only concerning aspect is that the club has apparently signed the player without the Manager having seen him play. Now this must happen occasionally in the A-League for logistical reasons.

Remember Miron Bleiberg and the infamous Reinaldo DVD signing, that looked like a particularly silly piece of business for about two an a half seasons, until Reinaldo worked out that those things down there at the bottom of his long legs were his feet and that they had some applications helpful to the game of football.

Zura's difficulty is that he joins a team which includes the league's most successful target man. As a player who looks to be in a similar mold to Griffiths, Zura could find himself on the bench if Van Egmond cant find a formation that�utilises�them both.

Perth Glory sign Amaral !!

In an exciting demonstration of the way the A-League can now attract international star power, Perth Glory have fought off a host of suiters to secure the signature of Amaral who played for Brazil over a decade ago. At just 35 Amaral still has plenty to offer as proven by a recent successful stint with Fiorentina at the turn of the century.

Since leaving Fiorentina, the irrepressible Amaral has turned out for an impressive nine different clubs in six years. You have got to admire that kind of persistence. A highlight of this time was his 16 appearances for glamor club Pogon Szczecin�which he helped achieve relegation to the Polish 3rd Division.

According to SBS�Amaral is looking forward to seeing the countryside and spending time on the beautiful beaches...

This is the A-League folks, buck up your ideas.