Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

Biggest A-League Club fumbles.

vanlassen

vanlassen

Youth Prospect
Joined
Aug 7, 2025
Replies
49
After watching Alex Badolato get the player of the tournament at the AFC U-20 Asian Cup and watching him dominate against Melbourne Victory last night, I wondered how Western Sydney Wanderers could let this player go and whether he might end up being the biggest player fumbled by any club in A-League history.

It might be too early to make that call but it made me think of all the players A-League clubs have let slip through the cracks.

For Sydney FC, I have seen them lose Kealey Adamson, Calem Nieuwenhof, and Ryan Teague but I would consider Marco Tilio to be the club’s biggest fumble. How or why they let Tilio go to Melbourne City I will never understand.

I'm interested to hear what you all consider your clubs biggest fumble.
 
vanlassen said:
After watching Alex Badolato get the player of the tournament at the AFC U-20 Asian Cup and watching him dominate against Melbourne Victory last night, I wondered how Western Sydney Wanderers could let this player go and whether he might end up being the biggest player fumbled by any club in A-League history.

It might be too early to make that call but it made me think of all the players A-League clubs have let slip through the cracks.

For Sydney FC, I have seen them lose Kealey Adamson, Calem Nieuwenhof, and Ryan Teague but I would consider Marco Tilio to be the club’s biggest fumble. How or why they let Tilio go to Melbourne City I will never understand.

I'm interested to hear what you all consider your clubs biggest fumble.
Click to expand...
And let’s not forget he was on loan at Victory and sat on the bench and it seems they could have signed him but chose not to.
 
At the Roar we tend to lose good/promising players to the bigger (more money) clubs rather than sending them away and having them turn into gems.

Googling "Brisbane Roar players transferred to other aleague clubs" brought up TransferMarkt's lists of Departures by season. Going all the way back I can't really see a single player who we had any control over their departure (we ditched them) who went to another aleague club and made us regret it.

We had plenty of players who left us when we would have kept them if we could - but that is the merry-go-round of money.

Some of our youth players have gone on to be good footballers, but none of them I can think of would I kick myself over. They may or may not have developed better with us and it is not like we did not have another player of similar capability step in behind them.
 
When you talk about fumbles as a Heart fan, you think about players you almost signed. A lot of obvious ones in 2014-2015 times Lampard Pirlo etc. But over the past week Rafał Augustyniak scored two bangers to win Legia a huge match vs Szachtar Donieck in the Conference League, he was extremely close to signing for Melbourne City in 2021.

If we are talking about players who slipped through, Genreau is the main answer, not sure why he didnt play under Mombaerts. Gauci as well but nobody expected him to rise then. Goodwin if we mean before takeover but probably wasn't our choice
 
RIMB said:
At the Roar we tend to lose good/promising players to the bigger (more money) clubs rather than sending them away and having them turn into gems.

Googling "Brisbane Roar players transferred to other aleague clubs" brought up TransferMarkt's lists of Departures by season. Going all the way back I can't really see a single player who we had any control over their departure (we ditched them) who went to another aleague club and made us regret it.

We had plenty of players who left us when we would have kept them if we could - but that is the merry-go-round of money.

Some of our youth players have gone on to be good footballers, but none of them I can think of would I kick myself over. They may or may not have developed better with us and it is not like we did not have another player of similar capability step in behind them.
Click to expand...
Wellington have had that same issue, so many names have moved off over to other A-league clubs and done well. Maybe its a good thing but it leaves the club short cum the following season.
 
Kitwally said:
Ok. And he chose Jets because he was playing so little at Victory.
Click to expand...

There was lots of competition at MV (other young players) , but yes. I think he was probbaly sold more time at Jets (or figured he'd get more).

I only just found out MV were trying to sign him as I thought the same thing. But Diles confirmed it
 
tsf said:
There was lots of competition at MV (other young players) , but yes. I think he was probbaly sold more time at Jets (or figured he'd get more).

I only just found out MV were trying to sign him as I thought the same thing. But Diles confirmed it
Click to expand...
There is also always the issue of the salary cap. At this point in time, maybe the Jets had slightly more budget for him as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tsf
I dunno about an actual "fumble", but Jake Brimmer for Perth Glory was annoying.
He was with us for 4 seasons... For the first 3 1/2 of those seasons, he was basically invisible. Not actually bad, but when I was entering the match data I was genuinely surprised that he'd been on the pitch, as I never actually noticed him.
For the last 1/2 season, he suddenly seemed to step up and was a fantastic asset to the team, and I was pumped to see he was on the pitch.

Then after 3.5 indifferent and 0.5 great seasons, he left to go to Victory and then Auckland. :|
 
petszk said:
I dunno about an actual "fumble", but Jake Brimmer for Perth Glory was annoying.
He was with us for 4 seasons... For the first 3 1/2 of those seasons, he was basically invisible. Not actually bad, but when I was entering the match data I was genuinely surprised that he'd been on the pitch, as I never actually noticed him.
For the last 1/2 season, he suddenly seemed to step up and was a fantastic asset to the team, and I was pumped to see he was on the pitch.

Then after 3.5 indifferent and 0.5 great seasons, he left to go to Victory and then Auckland. :|
Click to expand...

Brimmer was definately an interesting case, but overall, I dont think he is/was that good. Good on the ball, but is largely ineffective. Top bloke though.

My memory could be wrong, but pretty sure both Sainsbury and Birrighitti were part of the youth team, to let them go over east was disgraceful. We also had Eli Babalj, pretty sure we let him go over east before making a first team appearance as well.
 
Given our struggles at the back the last couple of years, I felt Trewin was a fumble as he has developed into a pretty good A League player without setting the world on fire. I don't know whether its him choosing to go, or we just let him make the move because we weren't interested in making a deal.
 
Yengi left Adelaide because no one offered him a new contract as we had no Director of football at the time

That was a huge fuck up
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top