retired_milla0225

Saturday 12th June: The press conference

The following morning I got myself organised and got down to the stadium a bit earlier than had been arranged. Olympic Park is the home stadium for Melbourne Victory FC, it has a capacity of 18,500 with 11,000 odd of those spots seated. It was built as a training venue for the 1956 Olympics and has (not surprisingly given that fact) a world-class athletics track round the edge of the first ‘soccer’ pitch in Australia to be officially recognised by FIFA. Due to this fact the ground often hosts the national team. We (that’s Melbourne Victory folks, I was already thinking of the team as ‘we’) also share the ground with the Melbourne Storm Rugby League team. Not good.

I met up with the club chairman, Geoff Lord inside the ground, and also the Managing Director Tony Ising. The quick ‘hello’ exchanged with Tony was probably the most I spoke to him in the entire time I was there as he scuttled off to organise something, somewhere else. Geoff on the other hand was much more welcoming.

Geoff Lord (GL): Ahh, Bruce, we meet in person at last.
Bruce Parker (BP) (no that really is me): Indeed we do Mr Lord, I believe we have a press conference set up ?
GL: Now now Bruce, I distinctly remember telling you on the phone to call me Geoff and that applies even more in person. I think you’ll find me a pretty laid back person to work with. And yes we do have a press conference set up, which we ought to get to. I should warn you before we get in there that a lot of people were expecting a more high profile manager.

Me, to myself: Great.

The press were like a pack of baying wolves ready to tear at some raw meat, and after the briefest of introductions by Geoff I was left on my own. Who said this guy would be easy to work with?

The guy from The Melbourne Age was first up and he asked me how a complete unknown lower league manager from England could expect to do anything in Australia, and it went downhill from there. I told the press at various points that England, as the home of football, could bring the Beautiful Game to the land of the New Millennium; how I thought the players we had could secure the mid table position that the chairman had told me he wanted and how I thought that Australian beer was like having sex on a beach (F***in’ close to water).None of which went down too well. Nevertheless it was all over and now I could get down to some real work.

I got on the phones, and invited a few clubs to take part in friendlies. I sent the scouts out to look for new players and I popped down to the Epping Stadium, where our reserve and U20 games are played in order to watch my assistant manager, Aaron Healy take training.

retired_suzannechua

You'll have a player in your squad (he's upfront) who's much better then the rest. He's left the club in real life to let ya know.

retired_suzannechua

KUTGW anyway.

retired_milla0225

Who ? Archie Thompson ? He seems better than the others at least on initial inspection he does.

retired_milla0225

Time to do the Technical Spec.

I have The Australian League running (obviously) but also China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and England. All available divisons for all leagues. Large database. On a XP2400 with 1Mb of memory. Runs pretty swiftly I can tell you.

The idea is obviously to explore the leagues 'less played on' and that.

Oh, and thanks for reading

retired_milla0225

Saturday 12th June The first impressions of the squad

I was introduced to the squad down at the Epping Stadium. They looked sceptical, to be honest. And as they got back into the session I started to take some notes.

Goalkeepers

We had two keepers at the club. 20. Eugene Galekovic is the first choice keeper. He’s very, very good in the air and a little less good a shot stopping. He’s average when it comes to communication and sheer presence, but is better at rushing out. He came from one of the clubs from which Melbourne Victory was created last year in the form of South Melbourne. The second keeper was 1. Michael Theokolitos, 24 (the same as Galekovic), and he is better at shot stopping and not quite as good in the air. He’d come from the New Zealand Knights via a brief stop in English football at Blackpool.

In truth the keepers are pretty close to each other and either could have claimed the starting spot.

Defenders

I was pleased to see at least a couple of whom were familiar to me the first of whom will be known to most English football fans. Right back 2. Kevin Muscat, 31, had rolled up to the club in the off season via way of Palace, Wolves,Rangers and finally Milwall. Of course his experience would come in handy as would his on-field leadership. He’s still a little rash in the tackle though. 3.Daniel Piorkowski, 21, is another right back, a promising young player, with good pace and tackling. He joined from this teams predecessor Melbourne Knights and will probably serve as Muscat’s understudy. 15. Adrian Leijer is only 19 and is a left back. By rights he should be a reserve but I think he’s shown enough in training already to put a claim on the first team spot. He’s quick and aggressive and is very much the team player. The player who’s spot he’s looking at taking is 16. Simon Storey, 23, who was recently signed from local non-leaguers Green Gully. In the centre of the park 30 year old Belgian 5. Geoffrey Claeys is one of the best players at the club. He is excellent in all areas of defending, with the possible exception of distribution which tends to be a little suspect if he tries to do too much. He is veteran of 13 seasons in the Belgian and Dutch leagues, most lately at Mouscron. 4. Mark Byrnes,23 is another centre back. He is a composed defender he has already put in a number of seasons, previously at Perth Glory and Parramatta Power, and last season at Finnish outfit FC Hameenlinna.

The one thing that struck me from this list was that we needed to strengthen at the back.

Midfielders

21 year old 14. Steve Pantelidis is first up, a defensive midfielder, brought in like so many other from Melbourne Knights is an average player with an average set of skills. Should I need to prune the squad this guy is the prime candidate to go. On the other hand 20 year old 12. Carl Recchia, also a defensive midfielder, represents the future of the club. He still ahs a lot to learn but has a good ‘engine’ and is a very promising player. He comes to us by way of non-league Fawkner. 31 year old 17. Richard Kitzbichler is an Austrian right winger who has 17 international caps. He looks a good all round player with a good work ethic (strange that, not being stereotypical at all). He has 14 seasons experience, mainly in Austria (though he did have a couple in Germany at HSV). 11. Vince Lia is 20, a right winger, and another promising player. Agile and quick, he’ll do well in this league, should he get the chance. He’s another recruit from ’Souths’ (South Melbourne). 8. Andrew Vlahos, 29, is first choice on the left wing. He’s been signed up following a couple of successful seasons in Europe at Cercle Brugge. 7.Michael Ferrante, 24, is an attacking midfielder and also a very, very good player. He is fast and strong, gets forward and has the composure in front of goal to get his fair share of goals. Though he’s an Australian, this is his first club in this country having started his pro career at West Ham United.

Overall we have a good balance in midfield, though we could use some better quality cover.

Attackers

9. Danny Allsop,26, is another player I was familiar with thanks to a number of years service in England. Starting at Man City who picked him from Souths, but making his name at first Notts County and for a season at Hull. He is a gifted striker who can shoot from distance and is also a ‘fox in the box’ type striker. Not so good in the air, but otherwise a great player to have at the club. 19 Ricky Diaco, 23, is the backup striker in the squad at the minute. He joined us as his first ever pro club last year. He is quite a promising striker and gives us an option in the air. The third and final striker at the club is the team’s star player 10. Archie Thompson. Archie is 26 years old and as a guide to his talisman status in Aussie football he has 16 international goals in only 9 international appearances. He is regularly the only home-based player to get into the national squad. He is a very quick player, good in most areas of the park, and a real benefit to the team.

Pretty obvious the weakness we have here. Not enough players. We’ll be stuffed with a couple of injuries.

A big post there. Sorry all.

retired_milla0225

Saturday 12th June – Friday 18th June The first signings

I went out to try and fill in some of the gaps, whilst remaining within the stipulations of the league. These were that maximum squad size would be 24, of which at least 6 had to be Under 20. there’s also a salary cap, but we are nowhere near that. As we stood we had 19 players, 5 of whom were 20 or under. So we went out on the look out for players. We got on the phones and made a couple of offers.

The first to sign, on the Monday, was 22 year old defender 6. Steve Laurie, a lad who can play either in the centre or on the right at the back. He started his career at West Ham United, and after a couple of clubs in between had played last season at Souths. He was released at the end of the season and came to us on a free. He has good, but not great, stats for heading, tackling and marking but he does have very good levels of concentration and decision making which should more than make up for them. He has a bit of a question mark about his composure but shows a good deal of promise for his age.

Next up, the following day, was the player that brought us up to 6 Under 20’s. 19 year old Keegan Wolfenden was the lad, a centre back with some good stats to work on. One for the future definitely.

On Wednesday night we played our first friendly. More of that later.

On Thursday we added our 22nd player, a 22 year old midfielder 22. Anthony Danze. A graduate of the Perth Glory school of excellence this player is a midfielder who has most recently been plying his trade in England at Crystal Palace, but was underused in England and found himself looking for a club in his homeland. I was more than happy to give the lad a chance as he has some great attributes for a midfielder. He can mark, pass and tackle, quite a good blend for a midfielder I reckon.

And on Friday we added the 23rd piece of the jigsaw, a 26 year old Georgian international forward by the name of 23. Rati Aleksidze. He has 16 caps, and fancied a go at plying his trade in Australia, God’s Own Country. He’s another good all rounder and will add competition up front.

We could probably do with one more forward, but the time had come for some friendlies.

retired_milla0225

Wednesday 15th June – Friday 24th June The first friendly, and a tour

The thing about being in my position is that I know practically nothing about any of the teams outside of the A League, and let’s face it all I know about the A League could be written upon the back of an envelope. But never mind. I set up a friendly against local non-leaguers Green Gully and a three game tour to The Cook Islands. For when we came back I asked non-league Essendon Royals if they fancied a game at our place.

So Wednesday 15th June saw our first friendly. With a squad of only 23 there isn’t a lot of scope for chopping and changing of players and I put out my best players against Green Gully. The Green Gully Cavaliers play at the Green Gully Reserve in Melbourne and they turned out to be not very good. Not very much of a challenge as we ran out easy winners by six goals to nil., Allsop and Thompson got two each with Diaco and Recchia getting one apiece.

Final Score Melbourne Victory 6-0 Green Gully
An easy win, but I didn’t learn much


At least they gave a stiffer test than our first game of the Cook Islands tour, or the second for that matter, but that wasn’t the point. I wanted to give the guys a bit of a relax, and as such it worked well.

On Sunday 19th June we opened our tour with a game against Takuvaine. The game was entirely one way traffic, the islanders not managing a single on target shot in the game. Goals from new signing Aleksidze(2), Allsopp(2), Ferrante,Pantilidis and Claeys completd an easy 7-0 win.

Final score Takuvaine 0-7 Melbourne Victory
Fun in the Sun

Two more days on and another easy match against the locals. Avatiu were the victims this time and they fell foul of two strikers with a need to prove themselves after the arrival of Aleksidze. Diaco got four goals, Archie Thompson three. Ferrante got one too and 8-0 was the final score.

Final Score Ataviu 0 – 8 Melbourne Victory
Do you think we’re finding this too easy

The final game of the tour came on Friday the 24th. Nikao provided the opposition, which was a little stiffer in this game. It still should have been more of a stroll than it was. The Nikao defence, and especially the keeper can be very proud of their efforts. And a goal in each half from Aleksidze in the first and Thompson in the second saw us home 2-0. So an easy and relaxing tour, but had it taught me anything? Unfortunately I thought not.

Final Score: Nikao 0-2 Melbourne Victory
The end of a gruelling tour!

retired_suzannechua

The Cook Islands have football teams now?

Try Fawkner if you are looking for a challenge.

retired_milla0225

Redman, I do have a game against Fawkner in the wings, expect to see news of it in a couple of days. (I write a little behind where I am in teh game itself, I find that gives me more time to think about where the story is going)

Sat 25th June : the final signing ?

On Saturday we put in the last piece of the jigsaw with another signing. Another forward, 26 year old Massimiliano Vieri who has two international caps for the Green and Gold. Coming to us on a free, by ways of Italian football (started at Juventus no less. You may know of his big brother Christian but ’Mass’ is a quality player in his own right who has scored goals , though not prolifically, wherever he’s gone.