Saturday, 24 October 2015

'Tis the season, the silly season

This off-season is proving to be one of the quietest on record, it is proving very difficult to find out anything about any club, not to mention our club - Sydney Olympic - where news or any updates have been very few and far between. To the supporters I've spoken to, there is a lot of frustration out there at the lack of any information regarding a variety of different issues.

Nevertheless, I will get stuck in to what I know about the squad for 2016:
We have signed Chris Triantis. Paul Henderson, William Angel, Niko Tsattalios, Howard Fondyke and Brayden Sorge have by all reports re-signed for 2016. On Harris Gaitatzis and Dimitri Hatzimouratis, I am receiving mixed messages, they are either both 100% gone - or - they both have offers on the table from Sydney Olympic, but also have offers from elsewhere and are still weighing up their options.

Yianni Fragogiannis was allegedly keen to join the club, but have since learned the club was used as a stage for some type of bidding war, by which the club refused to get into, for which I commend them for. Good luck to the Edensor Park club if they wish to spend the money they are, but some of the figures being bandied about defies sanity for this level of football. Peter Triantis is another player who showed interest in a return, the club was reciprocal in this interest. But I am hearing a disgruntled former assistant coach acting as a type of "father figure" entered the discussion and quashed any chance of a return.

Refer to my previous blog for the other signings we have made so far for 2016.

In the news of late has been the proposed site at Tempe, and it being some type of future base and permanent home for the cub, something all Sydney Olympic Supporters have been waiting for since 1957. Throughout the years there has been many close calls and many botched deals in this regard, meaning the status of the club has always been at the mercy of other groups. I hope and pray this is for real this time. From my limited knowledge about the whole process it will go to Marrickville Council for a vote to see if it is approved, and we all hope it is.

Finally the lack of an AGM since late 2013 (if my memory serves me correctly) has been a source of consternation among several supporters who I have spoken to.recently. I think a few people need to re-discover what the ''A'' stands for in AGM.

Leave a comment if you agree or disagree or to voice your opinion on anything, until next time.

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Fuck the off-season

It has been exactly 1 month since our season finished, losing to Hume City on the outskirts of Melbourne in the round of 16 of the FFA Cup. To make matters worse, the NSWPL off-season is a particularly long one. The start of the next season seems so far away.

Even though I'm keeping my ear pretty close to the ground, it is always fairly difficult to find out about signings, re-signings, departures or any other news concerning the club at this point of the year, but I've done my best and thanks to some fine detective work, I've managed to find out a few things.

This is not so much a scoop as it was reported several times around the traps. Dependable Left-Back and one of the first names on the Sydney Olympic team sheet, Troy Danaskos, has departed the club, signing a contract with a-league franchise Wellington Phoenix for the up-coming a-league season. Troy will leave a big hole which will be difficult to fill, it is disappointing to lose a player of Troy's calibre. But it is what it is and I certainly wish him the best of luck.

We have also signed a group of young players from various other NSWPL clubs;
- Mark Cindric from Sydney United
- Anthony Tomelic from Sydney United
- James Combes from Sutherland
- Jake de Marigny from Marconi
- Michael Loupis from Rockdale
- Cohan Morris
- Adrian Vranic
- Jack Green
- Oliver Green
- James Andrew has gone to Sutherland
- Brendan Hooper has gone to APIA
- Taiga Soeda, Go Shirai and Scott Balderson also won't be back next season by the looks of it.

Some of the players signed will be destined for 1st Grade others for the 20's. As for the main 1st Grade squad, more may move on. Contracts have been offered to others so we will have to wait and see what transpires there.

As the new year approaches, there will be more significant news to come out of the club and we will all obviously find out a bit more of what's going on. I will endeavour to find out more news and anything else of interest and share it on this blog.