With Archie Thompson set to miss the rest of the Asian Champions League group stage, Gary Cole has turned his attention to finding a replacement striker, fast. And a report in the Herald Sun today indicated that the Victory are looking to Costa Rica for their salvation.
“Encouraged by Hernandez’s form late in the A-League season, Victory is poised to trial a Costan Rican striker, perhaps as early as next week, with a possibility he could play in an exhibition game against Adelaide United.”
There are some visa hurdles to deal with, as the player is waiting to receive an Australian visa, sent to Costa Rica from Mexico.
The identity of this Costa Rican striker hasn’t been officially revealed, but one knowledgeable pundit, known as El Tico, in the Melbourne Victory forum has suggested the player in question is Windell Gabriel:
“Don’t get too excited guys. The rumor is that the player is Windell Gabriel. He is from our team’s youth academy. Was on loan for about two seasons, came back to Alajuelense, was a complete disappointment and was separated from the 1st team and sent on a loan once again.
“Don’t get me wrong. He has talent, but when he was with us, he was extremely lazy and seemed unprepared to be part of a big club. Although he has done well in Perez Zeledon, the team we had loaned him to both times. While playing there he got a call up to the NT, but he didn’t have much of an impact there either.”
El Tico’s report notwithstanding, a YouTube video provides some hope that Gabriel could offer the Victory a decent option up front:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFusKhfvN2o[/youtube]
11 comments ↓
At least he looks like he has some size and muscle. Maybe the A-league will suit him more than in Costa Rica. Should challenge Allsopp to at least pull his finger out.
If this level of recriutment continues i might be in for a shout at a starting place if i get to the ground early enough. I think its about time to scour the 4th division in Mauritius. Honestly, if you can run 100m in a straight line, lift some weights and tella couple of jokes then the Victory could be calling you soon. Im off to get a season ticket for the tabel tennis.
Word has it the Mauritian 4th division has some fine up-and-coming talent.
Michael Baird i supposed to sign for victory after the champions league. there is also new that fre might be coming back to vicotyr after some conflicts with dc united. Adam fote is also supposed to sign for victory but these are jsut rumors i guess.
he seems tall and fast so he might be a good player?
The last thing victory needs is another lazy striker! c’mon! scout some decent tallent! not some no hope that has failed afew times! we need another fred
oh how we miss him 
the video looks positive but to be honest you could make a vid like that of most strikers that currently play in the a-league so until you see him out there playing there is no real way to tell i think.
and did i miss something that eveyone else saw that is keeping nathan elasi out of a spot, id heard he was up and coming talent? and what about kaz patafta?
whyis melbourne victory recriuting players from south america..why not players from europe..lets hope they get some quality striker!
i hope they keep kaz and get rid of love, his done nothing all season..
I would be given Pondeljak a go upfront ahead of some unknown striker. A League is a fast game and Hernandez found that out first hand last season. We can’t afford to go 2/3 rds of a season with crap results in the hope that a recruit is the right type. They had better get it right.
Paul Galgano i feel that one thing the A-League lacks compared to that of other similar leagues such as the MLS. Is decent aged, international representatives like Carlos Hernandez. The major problem with the A-League is ALL the clubs look to old players from Europe or Second Divison Brazilian players to fill in their foreign player spots. We as we have clearly seen has not worked in the first 3 seasons of the A-League
We need more players like Carlos Hernandez to increase the talent and playing standard of this league, whom are not only of a young age but players who play regularly for their national team also. Countries from Africa, Central/South America and Western Asia, would suit are league prefectly. Countries that should be looked at are Mexico (most national players play in their local league), Costa Rica, Hondarus, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Verenzula, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Angola, Tunisia. Many such nations have the majoirty of there players playing in their local league, thus cheap wages and able to be easily exploiated through a better lifestyle in Australia and a new and up-coming league.
Geoff you are right. A quick think back to the Asian Cup highlighted how many great players there are that fit the criteria you described. The same goes for Africa. The recent African Cup highlighted this. Who can forget the impact that the Cameroon Baga made against us in Thailand – someone recruited him!
Athleticism, techinical and tactical ability doesn’t have to cost the price of a Drogba or a Adebayor, rather a Baga (for example – of which there are many) would deliver excellent results and give us something upfront that we could never expect from our current crop of strikers (Archie excluded from this point).
The issue here is that with all the talent available across a number of continents, why are a-league coaches applying the same recruitment policies each season? Sure, we have started to see some south american recruiting but off the back of 10 minute highly edited DVDs the success rate is very low (Fred excluded). Apart from those coaches that have actually played or coached (regular first XI football) in the world’s top leagues are not aware of the recuitment policies behind them. So our coaches – especially the merrick/cole combination – revert back to what they know, which is very narrow view on recruitment. At MVFC we do not have the coaching pedigree to understand recruitment and to continually evolve it, that’s the reason why we still have Allsop being unchallenged for his position. At a club with any real depth Allsop would have been dropped ages ago.
Unfortunately, for the a-league we are still a generation of coaches behind before real recruitment and talent (both youth or senior) can be taken advantage of. The majority of a-league coaches only recruit one type of player and that is the hard running, hard tackling type which usually results in games at 100 miles per hour without much compusure. So the limited recuiting policies to date is that the coaches especially merrick are just a product of their limited experience – hence why MVFC now has as we approach v4: six central midfielders, no wingers and now we are looking to buy another central midfielder – is there any logic to this?
If we really want to to see amazing undiscovered talent who will play in regular international competitions (eg. World Cup) then the first recruitment policy that needs work is that of the coaches. I would like to see more international coaches (no more 1970s 3rd division English or Scottich coaches please) bringing in new ideas both tactical, technical and recruitment-wise. Who knows coaches with real ‘international’ experience might even discover the next Michael Essien or Adebayor playing for us when they are only 20-24 years old?
Geoff Yorke i agree with what you are saying that “the A-League is ALL the clubs look to old players from Europe or Second Divison Brazilian players to fill in their foreign player spots” . but when i was talking about recruiting players from Europe in the lower division sides..but not some old haks..young and entuhusiastic players.. i also agree with what you said about them recruting “from Africa, Central/South America and Western Asia..” i believe that we should look to recruite players who are playing for their countries in the up coming Olymipic games..
i think melbourne should hire some really experinced people as scouts to look for young and top quality players for the future of the club success..
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