Are we going to sign a 'Scouser' ??? ......
Interesting that last year's Victorian NPL "Goal Keeper of the Year" award winner -
Chris Oldfield was a trialist GK in the recent pre-season friendly closed game against Melb. Victory on the 14th of SEP.
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The 24 y.o Irishman is a former Liverpool FC youth graduate and came on in the 64th minute. Despite our poor defence letting in 3 already at that stage, Oldfield DIDN'T concede a goal.
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In fact it was the second time the 'Hume City' keeper faced Victory in less than a week, following a 4-3 defeat against the A-League champions at ABD Stadium last Wednesday.
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Oldfield joined the Merseyside giants when he was just 12 years old. He rose through the ranks at Liverpool, and in 2008 was the Anfield club's U18's keeper, impressing enough to earn a place in the reserves squad for a close-season tour of Holland, fulfilling his dream move of signing a professional contract.
Among his teammates were – Steven Gerard, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano, Luis Suarez and Pepe Reina.
But with Reina in front of him, Oldfied left Anfield. He was released by Liverpool at the end of the 2009-10 season and he spent the first half of the that season on a short term contract with Rochdale before deciding to sign for Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League.
In the subsequent years, false starts at various clubs around the UK saw Oldfield become desperate for first team football so he decided to look Down Under.
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Louie Acevski the coach at Hume City signed Oldfield after he saw his YouTube video. Acevski, a former NSL keeper himself with Melb.Knights & Northern Spirit, is in no doubt about the quality that Oldfield possesses.
“Chris is a very solid goalkeeper, in all aspects. He is six feet two, got a great physique for being a goalkeeper, he’s commanding in his box, he’s a great shot stopper, he works extremely hard at training and he wants to continuously learn".
He's trained with Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory and apparently had enquiries from other A-League clubs.
So why haven't they signed him ???
"What I’ve been told is that if I had a visa, signing for an A-League club would have happened,” Oldfield said.
Don't know if I 'buy that' reasoning? Melb.City have just signed a visa spot GK for this season in ex EPL Aston-Villa/Stoke City player 'Thomas Sorrenson' from Denmark.
Bright side for Oldfield (& possibly CCM) is that 16th January 2016 is bookmarked as an important date on the Scouser’s calendar. It’s when Oldfield’s Australian residency comes into effect and it could just be his ticket to the A-League with us!
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Oldfield's played 97 games for the club since 2012, including 28 this season and is expected to return to Hume City to contest the club’s FFA quarter final clash against Oakleigh Cannons.
So we'll get a good look at him then and maybe it could be the game that "ink's the deal" with us.