Despite the A-League season finding itself on the backburner due to the Asian Cup break, the Corner Flag is celebrating the ten and five year anniversaries of Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart/City respectively with a range of top ten/fives for each club.
This is an ode to the flops – the guys touted for big things who came up short, the golden oldies that couldn’t re-live their glory days, or the signings that should never have been. We salute you (for giving us something to write about)!
5. Maycon Carvalho Inez
2011-2012 (14 games, 1 goal)
Maycon was a flavour-of-the-month player, signed around the time when A-league clubs were recruiting Brazilians willy-nilly assuming they’d be good. Terra-Maycon-Fred was Heart’s Leandro Love-Alessandro-Fred equivalent, with Fred the only real standout.
Signing a virtual unknown from Brazil’s lower leagues to a one-year contract wasn’t exactly a big vote of confidence anyway, and Maycon certainly didn’t do anything to dispel the cynics, scoring one goal in 14 games and missing easy chances in the process.
He was released to help Pahang gain promotion from Malaysia’s second division, before being released before the start of the Super League season. Damn.
4. Vince Grella
2012-13 (1 game, 0 goals)
With respect to Grella’s contribution to Australian football, a bigger ‘flop’ in this instance was Heart’s reliance on an ageing, injury riddled former star to recover and salvage their season. Of course, Grella did come back to play one game – coming on in the 68th minute against Western Sydney in late January – before probably injuring every muscle in his body during those minutes and calling it quits thereafter.
Signing ageing superstars, much like obscure Brazilians, has seen Heart/City learn player recruitment lessons the hard way.
3. Marcel Meeuwis
2013 (6 games, 0 goals)
Meeuwis was a quick-fix signing following the retirement of Vince Grella midway through the ill-fated 2012-13 season, and the bandaid solution was simply not enough to fix Melbourne Heart’s broken spine in midfield. Inspired the “tidy on the ball but he tackles like a turnstile, Marcel Meeuwis” Harperism, as he made a mockery of his Bundesliga and Eredivisie pedigree.
Finished his three month contract after six games without receiving a new offer, as Heart narrowly avoided the wooden spoon on goal difference. Central Coast breathed a reflective sigh of relief for not landing their man when courting him in pre-season.
2. Steven Gray
2012-13 (1 game, 0 goals)
To be fair, this selection isn’t as much a reflection on the Irishman’s abilities as it is an indictment of John Aloisi or Heart’s football department for signing him in the first place. Plucked from the state leagues in July 2012 after impressing on trial in a pre-season tournament in Hawaii, Gray signed a two year contract as a Visa player but was released just six months later to make way for Jamie Coyne (who could very well have also made this list).
Gray played in one game, a 3-2 loss away to Wellington Phoenix in which Heart blew an early two-goal lead, picking up a yellow card in just the seventh minute.
1. Michael Mifsud
2013-14 (14 games, 1 goal)
When Scott Munn announced that Heart were to sign a striker with European pedigree, rumour mills went into overdrive (or just regular drive, as the A-League’s always been associated with out-there names).
Michael Mifsud was introduced with a view of engaging the Maltese community, but ended up more of a Mal-teaser. Famous for scoring two goals against Manchester United whilst playing for Championship side Coventry, the Maltese Messi had the goalscoring ratio of a Maltese Heskey in the A-league, netting one goal in 14 games and fluffing plenty of other chances, before being released for personal reasons. It didn’t help that Aloisi’s tactics included playing long balls at the diminutive striker. All that hype ended in mockery on social media.