Round 2 2018/19 v Melb City @ CCS

[Luca Brasi]

Thats some squad city have.

 

[tim...]

Lachy Wales on why he left the Mariners for Melbourne City
OCTOBER 25, 2018PROMISING attacker Lachy Wales was officially Australia’s lowest paid professional soccer player last season - man or woman - earning a meagre $80 a week.

He was celebrated as an A-League breakthrough star, yet barely earned enough for petrol, let alone joining his then Central Coast teammates for lunch.

"I was on $80 a week. I was doing everything as a professional footballer, come the end of the month I wasn"t getting paid like one," Wales said.

"I quit Uni (teaching degree) and said I"ll give it one last crack. Doesn"t matter if you can"t pay me I"ll train everyday.

"I would do (refereeing) in the afternoons for extra money. After training I would change into a referee kit and go.

"They paid $15 a game, 30-minute games. Once I started playing (A-League), the (players) go are you ... ?" I"d say "yeah". They"re like, 'what are you doing here'?

"That"s just what I had to do for opportunity."

Wales, who provided a goal assist with his first A-League touch last season and impressed in 10 games, revealed his budgetary tricks.

"It was tough. My dad saved me. For my 18th birthday my dad bought me a Subaru Forrester to drive to training,"" he said.

"Dad cooked me every meal. If I needed fuel or if the boys were going out or I wanted to go to the movies, he"d help.”

Living off a $4000 annual soccer wage (W-League minimum was $10,000) wasn"t the hardest part for Wales, who admitted the death of his mum to cancer several years ago kept him focused.

The reality check came in April, which prompted his move to Melbourne City, where he is a starter.

Lachy Wales made good progress with the Mariners yet was being paid $80 a week. Picture: AAP
It"s understood the Mariners withdrew a two-year offer and pressured him to sign a one-year contract.

Saturday marks his first return to Gosford since leaving and it will be mixed emotions after the stunning exit of the local Central Coast kid and former Mariners ball boy, who attended most home games and even stalked then Mariners striker John Aloisi at his hotel for hours.

"I was shocked. I"m very relaxed, not impatient. Things wanted to be rushed,"" Wales said.

"I just wanted to play there. No hard feelings, football"s a business. You can"t always be the local kid that gave everything to a club. At some point they have to give something back.

"People said I went for the money. I"m on the same here (he would"ve got at the Mariners).

"I signed at City for two seasons. That"s all I wanted, two seasons.

"Since I"ve got here I realised this is the place to be. The gym, facilities. I"ve put on 4 kilos.”

Wales may be on minimum A-League wage this season ($63,000), but he couldn"t be happier with the pay rise.

(From the Melbourne News Corpse media)

 

[Tevor]

He is looking heaps fitter this year as well and in game one played well I thought. After reading that I think he will make a real go of it with City as he seems to have a good attitude. Good luck to him and who knows we may seem back one day.

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

Lachy Wales on why he left the Mariners for Melbourne City
OCTOBER 25, 2018PROMISING attacker Lachy Wales was officially Australia’s lowest paid professional soccer player last season - man or woman - earning a meagre $80 a week.

He was celebrated as an A-League breakthrough star, yet barely earned enough for petrol, let alone joining his then Central Coast teammates for lunch.

"I was on $80 a week. I was doing everything as a professional footballer, come the end of the month I wasn"t getting paid like one," Wales said.

"I quit Uni (teaching degree) and said I"ll give it one last crack. Doesn"t matter if you can"t pay me I"ll train everyday.

"I would do (refereeing) in the afternoons for extra money. After training I would change into a referee kit and go.

"They paid $15 a game, 30-minute games. Once I started playing (A-League), the (players) go are you ... ?" I"d say "yeah". They"re like, 'what are you doing here'?

"That"s just what I had to do for opportunity."

Wales, who provided a goal assist with his first A-League touch last season and impressed in 10 games, revealed his budgetary tricks.

"It was tough. My dad saved me. For my 18th birthday my dad bought me a Subaru Forrester to drive to training,"" he said.

"Dad cooked me every meal. If I needed fuel or if the boys were going out or I wanted to go to the movies, he"d help.”

Living off a $4000 annual soccer wage (W-League minimum was $10,000) wasn"t the hardest part for Wales, who admitted the death of his mum to cancer several years ago kept him focused.

The reality check came in April, which prompted his move to Melbourne City, where he is a starter.

Lachy Wales made good progress with the Mariners yet was being paid $80 a week. Picture: AAP
It"s understood the Mariners withdrew a two-year offer and pressured him to sign a one-year contract.

Saturday marks his first return to Gosford since leaving and it will be mixed emotions after the stunning exit of the local Central Coast kid and former Mariners ball boy, who attended most home games and even stalked then Mariners striker John Aloisi at his hotel for hours.

"I was shocked. I"m very relaxed, not impatient. Things wanted to be rushed,"" Wales said.

"I just wanted to play there. No hard feelings, football"s a business. You can"t always be the local kid that gave everything to a club. At some point they have to give something back.

"People said I went for the money. I"m on the same here (he would"ve got at the Mariners).

"I signed at City for two seasons. That"s all I wanted, two seasons.

"Since I"ve got here I realised this is the place to be. The gym, facilities. I"ve put on 4 kilos.”

Wales may be on minimum A-League wage this season ($63,000), but he couldn"t be happier with the pay rise.

(From the Melbourne News Corpse media)

Very disappointing to hear that we rescinded an offer for a two year contract, what more did he have to do? He was a shining light at the end of last season and has stepped into a very talented City line up and has not looked out of place. Surely his value to on sell alone was worth a two year contract? We have given far less talented players contracts for the same if not longer, who did not come up through our academy. We should be championing our youth players and giving them long term deals, not taking advantage of them at every opportunity.

 

[Offsider]

Good move for him ......... good business by city ............ there must have been more than he is saying if he wanted to be the lad to play for ccm from juniors. Hope he doesn’t get booed ............ the upside for us is it took pressure off losing hoole .

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

Desperately hoping we can get a win out of this, City were rather disjointed and defensive against Victory, will be interesting to see Mulvey's game plan as I doubt Joyce will allow the space that enabled Connor's goal.

 

[Antlion]

It is a shame about Lachy. I guess with the squad we have he wouldn't have gotten a lot of game time anyway.

Maybe he'll return one day, who knows. Maybe not. Either way good luck to him and hope he has a stella career except when playing against us

 

[nebakke]

I'm a bit in two minds, although not much... The pay thing is what it is, he was on a youth contract yeah?

However - 'a shame' isn't even close... If his side of the story is all true, then it's a f**king embarrassment for the club - how the f**k could they let this happen? We're supposed to be taking pride in being the local club etc. with locally developed kids, yet we treat our potentially best local performer in recent time like this? If this was Okon's idea about youth management, HTF has he managed to build such loyalty in the players he has worked with?
On top of that, HTF did Shaun and the rest let that happen? After Lachie's performance last year he was clearly deserving of a full-time contract, at minimum!

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I think the 1 year contract would have been down purely to the time it occurred. If you listen to MM's interview it was a very busy time and a time of massive change to the lineup. Lots of players were being looked at and there probably was a fair bit of uncertainty as what could be offered at that stage.
If you compare it to McGing getting three years before Okon left then it is just about criminal negligence. However if you look at the number of midfielders we have who were possibly under consideration, I think about offering a promising youth player a one year standard contract is reasonable. You could also say the same about Buhagiar.
There is always a lot of movement of players in that situation throughout the league.
Both have potential but both need to realise that potential at the top level (Aleague). A lot look good but do not go on. Many need to move to realise that potential. It's football.
I wish them both well (except against us) and hope they make it, and will follow the careers with interest.

 

[Big Al]

For all the good our club does it sure can do some stupid things that undue the hard work.

Sure it’s a cut throat business but you can’t claim to be about the people, want every kid to strive to be a Mariner and then treat them like this.

That’s the perfect attitude you want from a young local kid given ago.

I’m sure Mulvey would have played a part but when we have tried so many young players from NPL why wouldn’t we do a little extra for our own.

No doubt Murray is a better player but he could of been great back up.

Stupid stuff from the club. Two years on minimum wage is not a decision that would have hurt the clubs finances and would be a handy squad filler.

There was a buzz at the ground when he got his first game that only a local who has come through the ranks can give.

No doubt he isn’t the best player but he is good enough

 

[Offsider]

For all the good our club does it sure can do some stupid things that undue the hard work.

Sure it’s a cut throat business but you can’t claim to be about the people, want every kid to strive to be a Mariner and then treat them like this.

That’s the perfect attitude you want from a young local kid given ago.

I’m sure Mulvey would have played a part but when we have tried so many young players from NPL why wouldn’t we do a little extra for our own.

No doubt Murray is a better player but he could of been great back up.

Stupid stuff from the club. Two years on minimum wage is not a decision that would have hurt the clubs finances and would be a handy squad filler.

There was a buzz at the ground when he got his first game that only a local who has come through the ranks can give.

No doubt he isn’t the best player but he is good enough

Reading your post it struck me that he may have been wooed with game time. Joyce is said to be a master in this area of promoting youth through the ranks and obviously saw something in wales that mm didn’t. He seems to own a starting spot after pre season, whereas others on this forum only rate him a squaddie.

 

[BrisRecky]

Here’s hoping Rosco Thunderfoot unleashes one or two of these tomorrow

 

[Scotty]

Very disappointing to hear that we rescinded an offer for a two year contract, what more did he have to do? He was a shining light at the end of last season and has stepped into a very talented City line up and has not looked out of place. Surely his value to on sell alone was worth a two year contract? We have given far less talented players contracts for the same if not longer, who did not come up through our academy. We should be championing our youth players and giving them long term deals, not taking advantage of them at every opportunity.

Exactly, and we could have had him for cheap as chips. Mulvey would have been on-board with him I think.

 

[Big Al]

Reading your post it struck me that he may have been wooed with game time. Joyce is said to be a master in this area of promoting youth through the ranks and obviously saw something in wales that mm didn’t. He seems to own a starting spot after pre season, whereas others on this forum only rate him a squaddie.

Possible and his good games were against City.

It’s the old 2 seasons pay is better than 1. Especially after scrapping for every dollar.

City are trying to blood young Aussies yo cash in on but if you don’t put in the work you don’t play like Arzani.

Either way we blew it

 

[Big Al]

City enquired about Ross but didn’t want to wait till end of the window to get him

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/10/26/city-talking-more-about-mccormack-bolt-says-joyce

 

[Michael]

I was genuinely cut up when lachy left and I didn’t know where to direct my anger.. first thoughts were “he’s taken the money” then “he’s done a holland”. Only for a second did it cross my mind that we screwed him. So this pisses me off, why was the 2 year offer taken back? In what world is a talented local kid at his local club working his socks off on penny’s not worth a 2 year deal? He performed better than Hoole and Pain did in 10 games than they’ve done for years.
And our fans will boo every single touch Lachy has tomorrow. It’s extremely unfortunate and does my head in. I almost hope he scores against us.

 

[nebakke]

I was genuinely cut up when lachy left and I didn’t know where to direct my anger.. first thoughts were “he’s taken the money” then “he’s done a holland”. Only for a second did it cross my mind that we screwed him. So this pisses me off, why was the 2 year offer taken back? In what world is a talented local kid at his local club working his socks off on penny’s not worth a 2 year deal? He performed better than Hoole and Pain did in 10 games than they’ve done for years.
And our fans will boo every single touch Lachy has tomorrow. It’s extremely unfortunate and does my head in. I almost hope he scores against us.

Well... I agree except for the last bit...

 

[Insertnamehere]

It's early days and all due respect to the new guys but I'd prefer to have Lach, a local, at the club for 2 years than some of the blokes we've brought in. Not necessarily for football reasons, though I think he's going to be a class player but because he's one of ours. It's a pity if we've had a lack of class and respect.
Play me the violin for the $80 a wk thing. I don't think you need to quit uni either. He knew what his contract was. Life's a grind at the bottom.

 

[nebakke]

It's early days and all due respect to the new guys but I'd prefer to have Lach, a local, at the club for 2 years than some of the blokes we've brought in. Not necessarily for football reasons, though I think he's going to be a class player but because he's one of ours. It's a pity if we've had a lack of class and respect.
Play me the violin for the $80 a wk thing. I don't think you need to quit uni either. He knew what his contract was. Life's a grind at the bottom.

I don't think the money thing is entirely unreasonable from him in the longer term, but the uni thing... I know there's not a lot of love for Chesty on here, but dude studied for a law degree on the side while playing, so clearly it can be done.

 

[nebakke]

Oh - I should add that I actually think it's pretty important that it's not considered a 'fait accompli' that you can't do both... It's such a common issue in professional sports, that players end up directionless when their career ends - actively encouraging players - especially those who are not likely to ever become millionaires playing football - to have a backup plan, only seems reasonable.