Coastie

Not usually, but garang leaves with the club’s blessing and everyone wants him to do well. Still want him to do well for us before he goes.

The way NUFC are going right now, no team will fancy playing them. Based on recent results the Toon are a chance against anyone, including Arsenal and City. Howe has done an amazing job with the squad he has but I suspect there’ll be a couple of quality signings in Jan to help maintain momentum. Anything less than fourth would be a disappointment now.

And just quietly, I’d not be at all surprised to see Oz get out of the group. Qatar is a weird place to play - especially at this time of year, but Oz due to Covid have played about 12 matches there in the last 18 months. We’re used to the conditions and while there’s not huge quality in our squad there’s plenty of pace and aggression. If used properly we might upset some more fancied countries. I also think Iran, Korea, Japan and one or two African countries are likely to be dark horses. Senegal in particular.

I’d call him the Aussie Mbappe. In all seriousness, his pace and finishing are lethal and regardless of how Oz go In Qatar, he’ll be one of the names talked about. To answer another question, I think if he plays every game he’ll either qualify for a work permit outright or be eligible for NUFC to apply for an exemption as an outstanding youth player. Might well be playing for the Toon by January. He’s good enough already.

I’ve been screaming for the manager to start him. If he’d started yesterday no way do the mariners lose that game. He’ll be a total star at the WC

In reply to an earlier post, there are three immediate possibilities for GK. He could be given a work permit on the basis of appearances at the WC - I've no doubt he'll come on in every game. NUFC could apply for a special dispensation on the basis of him being an outstanding youth player. He could be loaned out to another Euro club. If either of the first two happen, he could go straight into Eddie's first team squad. If that happens, he won't be fazed - super confident lad with super skills. Gonna be a major star.

That's why it's called the World Cup and not the European Cup... Jeez...

Yeah, I'd be wary of bulking him up too much. He already looks strong enough for what he does and runs like a gazelle - don't want to screw around with that. He'll bulk up naturally as he ages, in any case. Played brilliantly the other night (again), but I wish Monty would start him. Almost too late now as he'll almost certainly go to the World Cup and then there'll be just a handful of matches before he joins the Toon.

I agree with most of your points, except the comparable quality - which is probably like arguing about angels dancing on a pinhead. Bottom line is that GK is excelling in a league good enough to be taken seriously by the likes of Barcelona and NUFC.

I suspect football everywhere has changed somewhat everywhere since the 80s and 90s... You have to remember that the AL is played in summer so it's necessarily a slower game than those played in the northern winter. As for Australians performing in Europe - they take a while to adjust to the different pace - just as Europeans ,come into the AL and struggle with the very different conditions. Robbie Fowler, for instance, and plenty of others thought they were coming to a superannuation league and struggled big time. The reality is it's very hard to compare the leagues given the huge differences in conditions (and salary levels) but Celtic came out to Australia a few years back and were beaten by my club (Mariners) who had the previous season done pretty poorly in the AL, so I stand comfortably by my SPL comparison.

We do the best with what we have. It's a salary capped league meaning most teams' playing budget is (approx) between two and three million pounds. Just about any league would look shite compared with the EPL. A fair comparison would be the SPL. Take out the Old Firm and most AL teams would beat most SPL teams. The very best team in the AL (Melbourne City) would probably survive in the English Championship. Probably... There's a whisper Garang might start for the Mariners tonight. Would love to see that - and would definitely improve the Mariners chances of an upset.

For all that though (swearing etc)... it looked to me like there were far more than the usual amount of women at the game. As for the swearing, I live in Australia and the young women are far swearier than the chaps these days. I accidentally cut in front of a 20 year old not so long ago and she shouted: "I've got one, you are one!"

Spinechilling stuff. Is it my imagination or do NUFC have a higher proportion of women at the game than most clubs? Good to see anyway.

Mariners were 2 - 0 down at home yesterday. Kuol came on at halftime and was a massive spark in the revival that saw us win 4 - 2. Also had one of their players sent off when he brought him down in very ugly fashion. That's going to happen a lot in his career - just hope he dosen't cop any major injuries from it.

Mostly yes. Postecoglou at Celtic has done a good job (with what he has) and is a serial success merchant everywhere he's gone. Very likely to end up in the EPL and will be fully prepared when he does.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

Finished the U20s tournament which saw Oz qualify for the U20s Asian Cup next year in Uzbekistan. Did pretty well - just one goal but figured strongly and was a main reason for Oz success. Now back home to star in the A League and then in the World Cup.

Kuol won't be playing today. He was picked for the Oz under 20s for an Asian Cup qualifying tournament. Idiotic selection when he's already played for the senior team - should be playing against men in the A League.

And you can probably find the Haaland comparison via this link: https://www.sportingnews.com/au/soccer/news

https://www.ftbl.com.au/analysis You can probably find the World Cup article at this link...

Perhaps links don't work here?

At the risk of over-hyping... Two articles indicative of how highly he's rated in Oz. This one calls him Australia's answer to Erling Haaland: Garang Kuol set for unmissable A-League Men farewell ahead of Premier League move | Sporting News Australia And this suggests Oz should build their entire World Cup campaign around him: The Socceroos need an entirely new approach for 2022 World Cup - FTBL | The home of football in Australia

I don't know about automatic but the usual rule is for countries outside (I think) the top 20, you must have played 75% of the last few internationals. Don't know if there's a time limit - like over the last 12 months or so. The club can also apply for a special dispensation regarding a youth player who is particularly outstanding and would make a big difference/improvement to the league. The pressure on Arnie to take him to the WC is pretty much irresistible. Just needs to keep performing for Central Coast and I reckon his confidence will be off the scale right now.

Bigger than who?

If he tears it up at the World Cup he'll qualify for a work permit. So right now he'll likely go out on loan, but you never know... He certainly has enough belief in himself to be featuring sooner rather than later, and I can definitely vouch for his quality. Gonna be huge... injury permitting. The last Aussie wonderkid (Daniel Arzani) tore his ACL on debut for Celtic and has never been the same since.