A good morning to you on this beautiful day here in Melbourne. The sun is shining and we’re just two days away from live football once again. Its a massive game on Saturday, as your no doubt aware. The first derby of the season and both teams desperately want the win.

There’s been some interesting news this week though in the build up to the game. David Davutovic reported in the Herald Sun yesterday that we’re still keen on Adrian Madaschi:

So don’t be surprised if former Socceroos defender Adrian Madaschi is rushed into the centre of defence alongside Rodrigo Vargas.

I’m surprised we still have a squad place left but its also interesting because we heard only a couple of weeks ago that Madaschi had not impressed the coaching staff as much as they would have liked and was free to head back overseas. Clearly, something has changed but if it means that we can add another centre-half of Madaschi’s experience then that can only be a good thing. Whether he’ll sign and be cleared to play on Saturday remains to be seen but either way, we should find out pretty soon. The A-League transfer window closes on October 31st so the situation can’t be far from being resolved.

According to Davutovic we also expressed interest in Jade North and Patrick Kisnorbo but I assume both of those options were never close to becoming reality. Kisnorbo has signed a new contract with Leeds United and North seems settled at FC Tokyo.

He also says that Danny Allsopp, Tom Pondeljak and Billy Celeski have been given permission to speak to other clubs. Something tells me this should have been done during the off-season. The chances of off-loading all three now are quite slim. I can’t see anyone else actually wanting them anyway, apart from maybe Allsopp who has been linked with Wellington.

In terms of replacing them, I don’t see that happening, even if we had more time before the transfer window shuts. As I understand it, due to A-League rules, their wages would still count towards the cap if they were released. Plus, as they’re all under contract I’m pretty sure they would have to be given a pay out. When you also consider that we’ve apparently only got around $100,000 left in the cap, bringing in more than one player before the end of October is unlikely. Its a shame really. We could do with a decent DM.

No matter what happens with Madaschi though, young Petar Franjic is expected to start in defence this weekend in Leijer’s absence. Its a great opportunity for him and he’ll really want to impress with the aim of maintaining his spot in the lineup.

Elsewhere, Archie Thompson says he wants to return to his favoured position up front:

On Saturday you might see me in more of an attacking role. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’d like to be closer to the goal. The last five or six years I’ve been playing up front and having success with that.

You’ve got to feel for Archie. Although I thought he was effective playing out wide in the ACL this year, he hasn’t looked comfortable so far this season. I think a return to a more traditional striker role for Archie is what the team needs at the moment. It would be even more effective if Solorzano was played along side him. We really lacked pace up front in the first two games, with Allsopp and Kewell respectively, in the lone striker role.

Lastly today, I just want to congratulate Adrian Leijer, Archie Thompson and Jimmy Jeggo as they’ve all been called into the next Socceroos camp. Its a great opportunity for them, particularly Jeggo.

Thats all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with a preview of Saturday’s game as well as a brand new Victorycast. Until then.