He's also a gypo supporter so probably jealous of us actually having a decent owner so looking to put the boot in wherever he can.
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So clubs get more power with the FFA congress change and straight away they playing the politics game to start getting costs down and the first thing on the hit list is players wages being reigned in
PFA about to be brought into the reality of Aussie football not the delusion they live in
So I bought a subscription to the herald hoping I can post their stories for everyone. I'll do my best to get them up in a timely manner.
Headline is about the trump economic sanctions on the Chinese and its affect on mr lee.
Chief executive Lawrie McKinna insists the Newcastle Jets will spend more on players this season than in any other despite owner Martin Lee’s business taking a major financial blow.
It was reported on Tuesday that Lee’s company, China-based Ledman Opto-electronics Group, has felt the brunt of a trade war with the US and the introduction of a 25 per cent tariff by President Donald Trump.
As a result Ledman’s share price has halved since May and the impact threatens to flow on to his other business interests, including the Jets.
However, McKinna said the club’s budget remained unchanged despite Lee proposing in July a $600,000 reduction as part of cost cutting across his companies.
“It has been business as usual,” McKinna told the Herald from Germany where he is presenting at a conference and meeting with the boss of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. “We are working from the same budget we had approved in July. Martin asked us if we could trim it. I said we couldn’t and explained why. We are going into qualifiers for the Asian Champions League and we need to spend money on the squad. He said: ‘no problem, just be careful what you spend’. Since then we have put on football and administration staff and recently signed Jair.”
The Herald understands that the Jets’ player budget for last season was about $3.7million, around $750,000 above the salary cap. Ronny Vargas was the club’s first marquee signing, whose contract sits outside the cap, since the exit of Emile Heskey in 2014.
“Last year was the most the club has spent on players, and this year will be about the same again, slightly more,” McKinna said.
As well as re-signing Vargas and adding Jair and Kiwi international Matthew Ridendton, the Jets have upgraded and extended Dimi Petratos’ contract. Captain Nigel Boogaard and fellow regulars Jason Hoffman and Steve Ugarkovic have also signed new deals beyond this season.
In the absence of McKinna, football operations manager Joel Griffiths and coach Ernie Merrick will address the players before training on Thursday.
“It is important to reassure them that it is business as usual,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths confirmed that management were working on a budget for next season and said confidence in the club was high.
“We are signing players who are in high demand,” he said.
“Every club wanted Dimi, every club was after Steve. We are in a good place. If things weren’t going well we wouldn’t be on the front-foot signing players.”
Lee bought the Jets from Football Federation Australia for $5 million in 2016, after the governing body had taken the *licence from the previous owner, fallen coal baron Nathan Tinkler after he was unable to pay bills.
That is certainly not the case under the Lee’s ownership.
“You send in a bill and the next day it is paid,” a supplier told the Herald.
A football fan, Lee also owns a team, Shenzhen Ledman, in the Chinese third division and has the naming rights for Portugal’s second division.
The Jets finished last, winning just five of 27 games, and suffered a $3 million loss in Lee’s first season.
However, the club improved dramatically – on and off the pitch – in year two, culminating with a controversial 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory in front of more 29,000 fans at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Membership numbers and corporate sales have continued to grow and McKinna is confident the Jets will be a break-even enterprise within two years.
“Sponsorship is up and membership is up,” McKinna said. “Last year membership started at 7,000 and finished at 9200. We are currently just under 9000 and hoping to crack 11,000. The squad is looking good and everything is going to schedule.”
Not surprised by this
https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/crou...-of-was-muscat
Or at $3 a week you could support the paper to stay in existence. You would all complain no end if there were no local news and everything was just about Sydney wouldn't you? Don't kid yourselves if you think they are making big money from display advertising.
Jets crack 9000 members a week before season kick off. If they start strongly might crack 10 000 before first home game.
https://twitter.com/NewcastleJetsFC/...19665486032901
Watching "The Trial 2.0"....they have to be kidding. I'm in my 50s and would be a better prospect.
Oh f***...he scored....how many times will we see that goal over the weekend?
Make that two....
The quality of editing in the papers and news websites has declined.
NEWCASTLE Jets have finished the physical part of the pre-season, but coach Ernie Merrick wants Ben Kantarovski to get through more work before deciding if the experienced midfielder will be involved in the A-League season opener away to Wellington on Sunday week.
Kantarovski has been hampered by calf and hamstring niggles in the final stage of the pre-season.
He and Kosta Petratos (knee) didn’t participate in an XI v XI game on Friday and instead trained under the care of strength and conditioning coach Chris Smith.
“Ben’s hamstring and calf are fine,” Merrick said. “It is just a case of whether we decide to take him [to Wellington] or make sure he is 100 per cent. We don’t want to bring him back too early when we could give him another week or so and make him really strong. He is unlikely but not entirely ruled out. Ben is such a good player, I might put him on the bench. The way Matthew Ridenton has been playing and Nick Cowburn. We have Steve Ugarkovic, Dimi Petratos and Ronny [Vargas]. We have plenty of defensive and attacking midfielders.”
Ridenton appears the frontrunner to partner Steve Ugarkovic at the base of midfield against Phoenix. Both played well in the intraclub game.
The combination up front Jason Hoffman, Jair, Dimi Petratos and Ronny Vargas was also impressive.
“We can break forward and score quickly through our counter attack and we are also very good at building up, which is the thing we didn’t do too well last year,” Merrick said. “I got out of it [the game] what I wanted and I didn’t want to push them because their work loads have been high. Chris Smith has done a great job with the fitness and Nathan Renwick on our health. The hard physical work is completed. Everything we do now is fairly short and sharp. We will taper down next week and look at the strategy for the Phoenix game.”
Merrick said they would play another intraclub game to finalise preparations.
“They are all dress rehearsals,” he said. “We have practised playing a team with 10 men, against a back-five, a back four, three high, two high etc. You are looking at different combinations
Ahh no it wasn't, it evolved from sharing research data at Universities. It was never designed to provide free info, it has evolved.
If you want quality anything you have to pay for it. Do you work for free? If not why do you expect others to. Once upon a time advertising revenue could support websites but Google and Facebook destroyed that. Who is going to report on local news if there are no locally employed reporters? Or do you expect them to volunteer their time for you?