William Gallas has joined Perth Glory. Source: Getty Images
FORGIVE me for pouring cold water on Perth Glory's decision to sign William Gallas, but it's hard to get excited about an A-League club paying marquee dollars to a 36-year-old foreign defender.
Gallas is a fantastic name, but do we really want to be seen as a competition that just throws marquee positions to foreigners at the end of their careers, particularly when they play at the back?
It's a different story in the case strikers and playmakers. They win you games either through creativity or scoring goals, or in the case Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero and Japanese star Shinji Ono, both.
Eventually it would be fantastic for Australian players to be filling those matchwinning roles but we need to develop that over time.
However, when it comes to defenders, we need our own players filling such positions in the A-League.
Maybe it's because I was a central defender that I feel strongly about this. I'm also always thinking about the future of the Australian game, and more about our national teams because I don't have an involvement at club level at the moment.
My thought process is different to club officials and coaches who are in the business of winning trophies But why should foreign players who are defenders be marquee just because they're foreign?
When I came back from overseas to join the Roar on a marquee deal, I was part of the national team and there were people questioning the decision to pay me outside the salary cap.
So why it is OK now to pay a foreign defender marquee money as Perth and Melbourne Victory are doing with Gallas and Pablo Contreras respectively?
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Western Sydney | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| 2 | Perth | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 3 | Brisbane | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | Central Coast | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 | Victory | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | Adelaide | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | -2 | 3 |
| 8 | Sydney | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -5 | 3 |
| 9 | Heart | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
| 10 | Wellington | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
I just don't understand that logic.
We've got to be very careful. We've got to make sure the foreign marquee players are going to have the right impact and are going to have a legacy, not stunt the growth of our own players.
And it's not just the marquee foreigners. It's also a matter of carefully choosing every visa player that comes to our shores.
There is no reason why we should be getting these signings wrong anymore because the tools are out there to find the right players.
The days of doing a background check via You Tube or a glossed over DVD are long gone.
There is also a very good argument that has been put forward by several people, including our national technical director Han Berger, that there are too many foreigners in the A-League.
Realistically, the five permitted visa players at each club should be better than their Australian teammates otherwise there is no point in bringing them over and paying them good money.
If that was the case, the 50 first-team spots would filled every week by a foreign player and that's too many, particularly in a competition that comprises just 10 clubs.
How can Australian footballers develop when almost half of the A-League is taken up by foreigners?
02 Nov, 2013
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Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/craig-moore-questions-perth-glorys-decision-to-sign-frenchman-william-gallas-as-marquee/story-e6frfkp9-1226752030303?from=public_rss
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