Ange Postecoglou

Worst move ever by Sainsbury, he regressed big time. Such a shame.

Rowles definitely has potential, will be interested to see how he gets on next season.

 

Degenek has played Champions League for Red Star. Wright just won promotion to the English Championship (Matt O-Riley came from League 1). Sainsbury is better than both of those but (unfortunately) has always chased the money so mixed up Dutch and Belgian clubs, Inter (where he was a squad player, but does Starfelt even get signed by Inter as a squaddie? I don't think so.) with China and now Qatar. Could've done much better.

Souttar plays for Stoke who are decent level and was winning rave reviews there before his injury - but to be honest, I've not seen much of him outside internationals where he did only play against the weaker teams.

 

There was something about that Inter deal. He was there as a player swap or something, think it might have even had something to do with the owners, who owned both clubs? He was never there on merit. To use that as an example is wrong, he was literally the mascot for the team.

Yes Degenek has played champions league, but he was slow to start with and seems to have somehow got slower.

Comparing Bailey Wright to O’Riley because of where they played fails to take into account the upside of a 21yo v a aging CB.

Souttar I rate, I’ve watched a few of his championship games and he’s solid as. Ask any Stoke fans and they all rate him and think he’s off to the PL. But we will never get him, Stoke will want Ajer type money, so that means there’s only 5 league’s buying him, and we aren’t one of them.

 

I'm assuming the manger would be better placed than most to know whether this Rowles was good enough for us and if Hearts have managed to jump to head of the queue and nab him then the deal will have been peanuts yet Ange still hasn't been tempted. Based on that he ain't better than what we have obviously.

 

Yeah, but as I said earlier, Ange has shown almost no interest in Australians. From his own personal perspective, where you're from should have no bearing on whether you're good enough, so it's curious as Oz players are super cheap. But this is all just off season speculation. And who knows whether Ange had any interest in Rowles? He doesn't publicise much about his dealings.

Also, I didn't say Rowles was better than what we have. I said he was the best CB from Oz to emerge in years. Which he certainly is.

 

So if he hasn’t looked to hoover up some Ozzie talent, is it safe to assume that he doesn’t think they’re good enough?

 

No way he would've said that. It would've been major news if he had.

Of course, on face value, that's absolutely true. Just as the majority of Scottish footballers are not good enough for Celtic.

 

Maybe. The one Aussie he tried to bring in was McGree, who is a fabulous player.

Mind you, I've heard rumours that he's spoken with Aaron Mooy whose family live in Glasgow. Would absolutely hate to see him play for anyone but Celtic, especially in Glasgow.

 

Now with Mooy, I think this is something we can all get onboard with!

 

We've had the debates re Aussie players ever since Tam Rogic joined and it only intensified with Ange (who many thought wouldn't be good enough because of his passport). I'm as bored with the debate as anyone, and I didn't start it this time. But the reality is Australia does breed some high quality footballers and only the ones good enough to already be in Europe (or outstanding AL youngsters) tend to get mentioned on here.

If you've read his book you'll know that Ange is a fierce advocate for Oz football being recognised for the quality it does have rather than the proximity to the cultural centre of the football world that it doesn't have. And right there, I suspect, is the reason he doesn't much go in for Oz players - yet. I suspect he fears being defined as a person recruiting in accordance with a nationalist philosophy rather than a pure football philosophy. I think he will definitely continue to trawl non-Euro leagues for quality bargains and that will include Oz but only for the very special players (like McGree - so * off he let us down).

I'm even boring myself as I write this so one last thing I'll leave for you to give a bit of context. Australia lost 2-1 to France in the opening game in Russia - 2018. We were so unlucky to lose (a dodgy VAR penalty and a bizarre deflection) in a game we dominated against the eventual World Champions. The BBC rated Aaron Mooy MOTM against a midfield that included Pogba and Kante, and Trent Sainsbury had the third highest match rating against the likes of Griesman and Mbappe. If you watch the youtube highlights you'll see an absolute stunning performance by Sainsbury. This is a BBC site - not Australian: World Cup 2018: France 2-1 Australia - how you rated the players - BBC Sport

I've seen plenty of Sainsbury and one season's worth of Starfelt. Yes, he got better, but he wouldn't get close to Sainsbury's performance against France. If Sainsbury had concentrated on the football rather than the money he would've been a world beater, and the money would eventually have followed.

 

Whoops! Respectably retracted and replaced with 'G'Day mate!'

 

I mean, Starfleet was one of Ange's first signings and we spent over £4 million on him. I'm not sure what's making you think Degenek for instance would start over him, when he's been out of contact in the past year and if Ange wanted to, very likely could have easily signed him on a free.

Bailey Wright's most recent move was to drop from the Championship to League One on a free transfer (I think when he was still under contract!) He was literally given away and again, Ange very likely could have signed him for peanuts if he'd wanted to. Yet he'd start over Starmelt?

You and I both know that Ange keeps an extremely close eye on Australian players and how they're doing. The fact that Hearts not Celtic just signed "probably the best Oz CB to emerge in years" Rowles, likely gives an indication of the current quality of Australian CBs.

 

For all we know, Degenek is a total plonker. Ange is as much about character as he is about ability to play his style. Degenek's record shows he's been a very decent player.

As for Rowles, Ange can't be watching everyone. I'm now hearing Hearts have been in discussion with Rowles for almost a year so they've long had the inside running.

 

I don't know about Degenek's character, but what we do know is that Ange invested £4 million plus on Starfelt as being somebody well suited to his system. Ange knows all these other guys well, on account of them being Australian, and they all would have been cheaper than that to sign (or free!)

As for Sainsbury, I think calling him an Inter squad player is a bit rich mate! I'm fairly certain that * has never played a single competitive fixture for them.

 

So what? He was still signed by them and they just wouldn't do that for someone who didn't reach a requisite minimum standard. Sainsbury has been a brilliant player but has * up his career by chasing money rather than standards. The * is worth many millions so won't give a rat's but I would've loved to see him reach his proper level. In fact I wonder whether he was scared off by the fact that he smashed his patella in a freak accident on a water sprinkler when he first went to PEC Zwolle in Holland. Started accepting mega bucks in crap leagues but has still performed well in the NT.

Of course, on balance, you'd have to say Starfelt has been a success. But on pure ability he doesn't come close to Sainsbury and based only on what I've seen... I'd pick the other three ahead of him. TBF, maybe my opinion is a bit affected by some nightmare moments in the first third of last season. Starfelt improved a lot towards the end.

 

Just checked. He was at Inter on loan and played just one game.

 

C'mon man take the blinkers off. I love me some Trent but this is getting outta hand. Pretty sure he only moved to Inter cause the new Korean manager didn't want him anymore at Jiangsu plus the owner owned both Jiangsu and Inter.

If he did all the right things it would be great but reality is, he didn't.

 

His career isn't defined solely by his Inter-lude.

Rewatch the game against France and then tell me Starfelt is even half the player. Rewatch the whole Asian Cup (under Ange) where he was player of the tournament. Sains was (and still is) an outstanding player and you can't call that into question because of some weird shenanigan re Inter's owners. He still played for them... once.

 

Anyway... Ange...