I SOMETIMES daydream I’m leading and winning a crusade against the sheer stupidity and lack of thought on football forums.
It could be that I’m elitist but I’d love a forum where people thought before they posted and everyone contributed positively to conversation.
In the wake of the Diego signing, my pet peeve has become people rejecting the idea of signing the ‘cast-offs’ or ‘rejects’ from other A-League clubs.
The problem I have with this is that while there are obviously players who get released for being not up to standard and will never reach that standard, players get released from clubs, or refuse to renew their contracts, for any number of reasons.
The most obvious reasons for a player and his club parting ways are that he doesn’t suit the playing style the manager wants, the club is cutting back on wages/he doesn’t fit under the cap, they are replacing him with a player considered to be ‘better’, the player wants a new challenge or gets a better offer, and of course poor performance over the course of his contract.
The fact is, a player being released for any of those reasons does not make in an intrinsically ‘bad’ player; even if he is released because of poor performance it does not necessarily mean he will always perform badly at that level.
A change of environment and coaching style can do wonders for a player - anyone who has seriously pursued a sport will know how different coaches help you approach things differently and help you develop as a player. All sportspeople are in a constant state of evolution.
I think that thanks to Shane Smeltz, most Phoenix fans understand this concept. When Smeltzy came here he had been hardly making a splash for Halifax Town. Two seasons later he is one of the best strikers in Australasia and attracting interest from a Turkish Super League club.
His is a story every fan should take note of if their club signs a ‘reject’ from elsewhere in the A-League, as is that of Galekovic, who went from number two at Melbourne to being a Socceroo in two seasons at Adelaide.
Certainly you want a player to be capable of bettering your squad, and who is to say that injury-free and in a different setup, the Diegos and Topor-Stanleys of this world can’t do that?
