The FFA has introduced a youth marquee system enabling clubs to sign one local player under the age of 23 and pay them up to $150,000 outside the salary cap. The player has to be Australian (or Kiwi for the Wellington Phoenix).
It’s a step in the right direction, as it seeks to avoid young players moving overseas for poor contracts:
“The concept is to ensure that talented younger players, who might otherwise be tempted to go overseas, stay in the A-League for as long as possible by offering them a competitive salary.”
Last year, David Carney moved to Sheffield United for just $125,000 - a sum which many in the A-League considered far too low for one of our brightest talents. Giving clubs the ability to offer players like that a bigger pay packet is an excellent idea.
So, with this new youth marquee system in place, who will ours be? Other than Kaz Patafta, none of the current stock spring to mind - and it’s hard to imagine the club offering Patafta big money when he’s only been used so sparingly. But turn your attention to the rest of the A-League, and some options start to present themselves: with the extra cash in the bank, could Melbourne entice the likes of Bruce Djite, Michael Zullo or Robbie Kruse to make the switch to the Victory?
Loading ...
6 responses so far ↓
1 Philip // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:18 pm
This youth marquee is a good idea. Another way to ensure we hold some talent a little longer. However, just because Melb has extra money doesnt mean we will be able to entice a Djite, Zullo or Kruse as their clubs will also have more money to keep them.
In any case, with our mysterious selection process, if we had any of these players they would probably be sitting right next to Patafta warming the bench!
The youth marquee will end up just being our highest paid U23 player to get their salary out of the salary cap calculations. I dont imagine this would be Kaz unless he is the highest paid bench warmer. It is probably Nick Ward (depending on what date they use for the cut-off).
Patafta probably should be our youth marquee and Ernie should give him some serious game time next season to get into the flow of the game or, if Ernie thinks he isnt up to it, get rid of him and stop wasting the boys time.
Broxham has struggled in some games and has performed well in others but Ernie has given him every opportunity to perform and establish himself. He should do the same with Patafta.
2 David // Apr 15, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Definitely a good idea to try to keep young talent here, we just need to get them playing regularly as well. Adrian Leijer certainly cemented his place in the team in the championship season, but Sarkies never seemed to get a solid run, a bit like Kaz last season, 10 mins at the end with no time to get into the game. Maybe Ernie values the type of attitude exemplified by Broxham raher than the skills, in the ” skills can be learned but attitude is everything” tradition. I thought Kaz’s continuing stay was as dependent on Benfica not calling fo his return as much as anything, but agree with Phillip above, young players need to play matches to improve in the game, and this is why Kaz came from Benfica, it’s common practice in Europe. Whoever it is I hope we get to see a lot of them on the pitch.
3 new tactix // Apr 16, 2008 at 10:15 am
Agree with both of you points and the FFA for showing some serious initiative about not only identifying, but retaining some of our brightest prospects. Considering the reality that our biggest (socceroo) stars are at or reaching their twilight years, many of the team after the next World Cup may be considering coaching or administration positions to stay involved in the game. With this said, it is initiatives such as this that will help develop our up and coming players through ‘regular’ first division competitive matches to prepare them for national selection or ’significant’ overseas offers from good clubs not just the 2nd or 3rd divisions of europe and asia.
The key point to this initiative is ‘regular’ game time! It is that simple. As good as this initiative is, it relies heavily on the other side of the equation - the coaches. My concern is not the initiative or the amount of money thrown to it, rather it is the following question - “with initiatives such as the youth marquee does the a-league have the depth and quality in coaches to actually take advantage of it?”
My answer is not quite… but not in all cases. I would say hand this initiative to Farina, Vidmar or Van Egmond and you might actually see it work. Farina, in my mind is the benchmark for a-league coaching. How he managed to turn around queensland last season by some very decisive coaching was very impressive and great to watch. His success was simple - remove the ‘deadwood’ and ‘incompetency’ to bring in real talent and potential, put them on the park and take a risk. We all saw what happened when Simon Lynch and Ante Milicic (who between them couldn’t hit the side of a house) were dropped for Zullo, Kruse and Minnecon. Not only did they perform but they scored, attacked but they also entertained and started pulling ‘BETTER CROWDS’!
The point here is this initiative would fall short at a club like MVFC simply because we do not have the coaching pedigree to understand talent and develop it. For all of Ernie’s so called experience at the AIS developing players, when it comes to first division and first XI football he falls flat on his face. Kaz Patafta is a case in point. When he played the crowd was excited, sure he needs some development, but if the kid never plays what does anyone expect? With Gary Cole plauding the acquisition of Nathan Elasi as a future star, I say, he doesn’t stand a chance under the helm of Merrick as the kid will have more splinters on his backside than minutes on the park!
Again I thank the FFA for being so forward thinking, unfortunatly for the a-league we are still a generation of coaches behind before real talent (both youth or senior) can be taken advantage of. On the point of senior talent just reflect back on Kosmina’s use of Juninho or Bridges - the reality is these coaches have never been ‘real’ quality players or played in real quality leagues so really they are just a product of their limited experience so they do not know how to coach real talent.
At MVFC, we can only hope to see more game time for the young guns of the likes of Kaz, Elasi or even Leandro but the reality is while Ernie is there we will only see players like Allsopp fumble their way through games, or if they play they will be out of position AND most likely you will witness many a long ball going over their heads and basically making them ineffective.
FFA needs not just a revamp of youth development - but if we really want to retain talent in this country both youth or senior the development of today’s coaches needs some serious consideration.
4 pippinu // Apr 16, 2008 at 3:16 pm
It’s a great idea, and I expect more of the same in the ensuing years in winding back the now overly restrictive salary cap - but I am wondering whether $150,000 is too small an amount?
5 Peter // Apr 16, 2008 at 7:56 pm
What a great idea! From our current crop, Broxham seems the most likely to gain such a favourable job, with Seb Ryall also a distinct possibility.
But I do see it as more likely that Melbourne might venture to one of the other bright young stars around. After all, Queensland has 3 very talented young players and can only give one of those the youth marquee spot. With this move, it wouldn’t surprise me to see two of the 3 Queensland youngsters end up at different A-league clubs.
6 Astri // Apr 17, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Good point about Broxham getting heaps of time off Merrick. He should persist with Kaz for longer than 5 or 10 mins. It’s a good initiative by the FFA but I don’t think $150,000 will be enough to keep a young gun when you consider that an under 23 player like C. Ronaldo probably earns that in a week. The average soccer player would need to be payed much better than what is on offer now but hopefully that will come.
Leave a Comment