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Aussies abroad 🌍🦘

grazorblade said:
Im skeptical. There is no rb/rwb i can see with big 5 or Cl potential and the early careers of volpato and irankunda look more similar to emerton and bresc than viduka and kewell. Toures early career looks weaker than aloisi

Having said that the cb pair and lb look like they will end up better

It looks like there wont be a huge difference tho. I suspect any mild improvement in our pathways like a nyl or an ais would have us equal or exceed the gg
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Wilkshire and Chipperfield weren't big 5 either. Although at big clubs in second tier leagues.
Kewell was sadly not the same guy by 2006 and more injuries after this killed him even more. Still good but had come back down to earth. Viduka was great when he was motivated, but he lasted 3 more years after 06 including the final one where he barely played..

The GG was probably more of a golden 2006 WC and just a very good good generation with Cahill and Bres being the standouts. The best period was probably from 2002 through to 2006 but we didn't play real games.

I realise I really underrated Bres' Serie career. I mostly remembered when he played the relegation play off tie.
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Five 5th place finishes and he also played 18 times in europe. There is quite a step for Toure, Volpato and Irankunda to take to get to Bres or Cahill level. Getting to 2002 Kewell or Viduka is another stratosphere.

highkick05 said:
Raphael Borges Rodrigues - this kid is in the EPL this season.
Never seen or heard of him in the NT picture. Wonder why?
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He was at the camp prior to the WC before being cut. Did not set the world on fire in L1. Miller, Italiano, Trewin preferred which seems pretty fair. Would be a big shock if he got any minutes at Coventry this season.
At Wigan
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Cunningstunt said:
He was at the camp prior to the WC before being cut. Did not set the world on fire in L1. Miller, Italiano, Trewin preferred which seems pretty fair. Would be a big shock if he got any minutes at Coventry this season.
At Wigan
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It’s too his detriment he’s signed to a club that got promoted, would’ve been better if it was in two years time. Instead, he’s now better off seeking a loan, ideally to the Championship but even back to Wigan so he can continue his development.
 
grazorblade said:
Im skeptical. There is no rb/rwb i can see with big 5 or Cl potential and the early careers of volpato and irankunda look more similar to emerton and bresc than viduka and kewell. Toures early career looks weaker than aloisi

Having said that the cb pair and lb look like they will end up better

It looks like there wont be a huge difference tho. I suspect any mild improvement in our pathways like a nyl or an ais would have us equal or exceed the gg
Click to expand...
I think we’ll end up with more depth in the top 25 but less top level players. We’ll be in a situation where there’s multiple regulars at Erdivisie or Championship that don’t make the squad but less Big 5 regulars.

Unless of course we get an equivalent batch to the current 21-23 yo’s from our current 17-20 yo’s and end up with another 6 Big 5 players (fingers crossed).
 
grazorblade said:
Im skeptical. There is no rb/rwb i can see with big 5 or Cl potential and the early careers of volpato and irankunda look more similar to emerton and bresc than viduka and kewell. Toures early career looks weaker than aloisi

Having said that the cb pair and lb look like they will end up better

It looks like there wont be a huge difference tho. I suspect any mild improvement in our pathways like a nyl or an ais would have us equal or exceed the gg
Click to expand...

If you think back to when Gus Hiddink took over after the 2005 Confeds cup, we actually lacked a LB, CB and RB. The whole backline was very slow and unskilled.

What Hiddink did was move both Chippers and Emerton from wide midfielders to fullback. This instantly solved our speed and skill issues at the back and allowed us to play a higher line. Muscat was dropped altogether, and Neill was moved from an inverted LB to play CB.

Ppl take those moves as a given now because these players became so entrenched in those position, but people forget that neither Neill or Chippers had ever played those roles before in their careers before Gus shifted them. Neill had always been a fullback and earlier in his career was sometimes used in midfield. Chippers had always been used as a left mid, AM or left wing. Emerton hadnt played right back for yrs since his time at Feyenoord.

He also brought in Culina from relative obscurity as a mid dutch AM to the first team, and purchased him for PSV, converting him to a 6/8. Also brought in Kennedy and Wilkshire from absolute inmonimity and made their careers.

That team lost all 3 games at the confeds cup, so the 'golden gen' is a bit of a myth really. We had never called them that prior to 2006 and really was the result of Hiddink's canny ability to make the best of what we had and unearth some previously unknown players. He really left a legacy that shaped Australian football.

Had of Hiddink been brought in earlier and Soccer Australia not had the severe finamcial issues that it had, i actually think the 2000 -2005 period would have been our peak when Kewell and Viduka were still considered world class.
 
Bunch_of_hacks said:
If you think back to when Gus Hiddink took over after the 2005 Confeds cup, we actually lacked a LB, CB and RB. The whole backline was very slow and unskilled.

What Hiddink did was move both Chippers and Emerton from wide midfielders to fullback. This instantly solved our speed and skill issues at the back and allowed us to play a higher line. Muscat was dropped altogether, and Neill was moved from an inverted LB to play CB.

Ppl take those moves as a given now because these players became so entrenched in those position, but people forget that neither Neill or Chippers had ever played those roles before in their careers before Gus shifted them. Neill had always been a fullback and earlier in his career was sometimes used in midfield. Chippers had always been used as a left mid, AM or left wing. Emerton hadnt played right back for yrs since his time at Feyenoord.

He also brought in Culina from relative obscurity as a mid dutch AM to the first team, and purchased him for PSV, converting him to a 6/8. Also brought in Kennedy and Wilkshire from absolute inmonimity and made their careers.

That team lost all 3 games at the confeds cup, so the 'golden gen' is a bit of a myth really. We had never called them that prior to 2006 and really was the result of Hiddink's canny ability to make the best of what we had and unearth some previously unknown players. He really left a legacy that shaped Australian football.

Had of Hiddink been brought in earlier and Soccer Australia not had the severe finamcial issues that it had, i actually think the 2000 -2005 period would have been our peak when Kewell and Viduka were still considered world class.
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Not realy a myth,

We had 8 players who achieved 6 seasons of regular football (25 games) in the big 5 which has never been achieved before or since on top of players at the top of 2nd tier leagues

It also gives me an excuse to watch old games, but i did recall seeing both chipper and neill in the back 4 before guus

Neill in particular i think was a natural cb that was forced wide (rb didnt suit him imo) by his club. He was a little short for a cb at 185cm, mind u the same height as moore
 
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Pub League Champion said:
I think we’ll end up with more depth in the top 25 but less top level players. We’ll be in a situation where there’s multiple regulars at Erdivisie or Championship that don’t make the squad but less Big 5 regulars.

Unless of course we get an equivalent batch to the current 21-23 yo’s from our current 17-20 yo’s and end up with another 6 Big 5 players (fingers crossed).
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That's what we want. It's what we need. And the next batch. And the batch after and so on. We need to get more consistent producing quality players.
 
Bbouy said:
Benfica play a Europa League playoff match tomorrow morning. I wonder if Circati will be involved?
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Benfica fans were saying on X that they have been needing an actual larger/big/physical CB in their backline !
Whether he plays would depend on

1) fitness,

2) how well and often he played in previous season for Parma,
Parma Career Highlights & 2025–26 Stats
    • 2025–26 Serie A: Played 31 matches (2,666 minutes), maintaining a strong 90% passing accuracy and 11 clean sheets.
    • Overall Parma Record: Totaled 96 competitive appearances and scored 2 goals after breaking into the senior side from the youth ranks in 2022.
    • Key Milestones: Played a crucial role in Parma's 2023–24 Serie B title win and subsequent Serie A survival, also earning distinction as a team captain
    • International Stint: Shone for Australia at the 2026 FIFA World Cup prior to finalizing his move to SL Benfica.

3) I think the NT only conceeded 3 goals the entire WC with him playing every minute of every game.

Don't see why he wouldn't? WC is a pretty big stage similar to that of the UEL. Plenty of experience in Serie A and B
 
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