Ney Fabiano: signed. Leandro Love: going

It’s about time.

The Melbourne Victory today announced that Ney Fabiano has signed. According to Gary Cole, it’s been a long time coming:

“We’ve been through quite a long negotiation with Chonburi, who have been absolutely fantastic in the process.”

“Fabiano stayed over after Wednesday’s game to go through our normal screening processes and he’s come up very well.

“We’re excited about the fact that we can add another big, strong, high quality striker to our squad.

”It gives us a lot more depth and a lot more options and means we go into next season satisfied now with our strike force.”

With Fabiano joining, the writing’s on the wall for Leandro Love, who’s one-year loan deal from Vissel Kobe will not be extended. One Brazilian leaves, another one arrives.

Stay posted for an in-depth profile of Fabiano soon.

6 comments ↓

#1 Druryfire on 05.24.08 at 5:49 am

Not a bad lad is Ney, but i think Melbourne have only scouted the ACL matches as his form in the Thai Premier League hasn’t really taken off this year.

He did well at Tobacco Monopoly, but playing for Chonburi and the weight of thousands of fans wanting him to score goals to lift another championship has rather dogged him down.

Should do well at Melbourne, but i think there were other options to be tried, but if Melbourne start a link up with Chonburi, then they will benefit for years to come, as the best of Thailand will make their way to Chonburi or BEC Tero Sasana before moving abroad.

Keep an eye on Teratep Winothai of BEC, who would set the A-League alight and would be a much cheaper option in terms of wages.

#2 andy on 05.25.08 at 7:50 pm

fabiano is a fantastic addition to our attacking stocks and I hope we see both him and Archie playing alongside Allsopp with Carlos in behind. All four look to score goals and will be a handfull for any A-league defence.

#3 Sly on 05.25.08 at 7:55 pm

Seems like a decent signing from the two games he played against us. Will be good to have some genuine competition for Archie and Danny, it seemed to me last season that Archie was getting a bit complacent about his position in the team. Will be good to have another big physical striker, my only question is who will be supplying the crosses?

I just hope Merrick and Cole are going to strengthen the defence too. Given the number of goals we shipped in the ACL it clearly needs tightening up. That for me was the basis of our failure in the competition. We scored in all but one of our games however we also let some sloppy goals in. Adelaides sucess was based around there defence, sure it wasn’t pretty but it was effective. Lets face it we are still years away from being able to compete in terms of flair with the top sides in Asia, hence the importance with getting the fundimentals correct.

#4 Philip on 05.25.08 at 10:00 pm

Sly, I dont think Ney will be a threat to Danny or Archie. It should be Ernie’s intention to play Danny, Archie and Ney as a three man front line … young Elasi will be the back up for injuries etc or a restructured line up. As Andy says, with Dan, Arch and Ney being supported by Hernandez we will have a forward line that should be pretty theatening for any A-League defence next year.

In theory we also have a pretty good quality midfied with Celeski, Pondeljak, Ward and Broxham and of course Hernandez. I leave out Patafta as it seems Ernie has decided he will never get a reasonable run. (The worry for me is Ward who i dont think has played well at all in the ACL)

I agree with your coment re the defence but worth noting is that our defence problems are on the left side where Joseph Keenan was supposed to fill the breach but that venture didnt work. At least 80% of the ACL goals we conceded came down the left side of the park. A good left sided foolback should be a high priority.

#5 Peter on 05.25.08 at 10:36 pm

I’m rather pleased with this addition to the squad. He certainly impressed enough in his matches against us in the ACL!

#6 Pat on 06.26.08 at 1:53 pm

Fabiano is a great player. Now it’s hard for Chonburi FC to find a replacement

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