World Transfer Gossip

From the local parks of the Victorian Premier League to the major cauldrons of European football, here is the best football gossip from the team at insidetheboxFC.

- There is a huge clearout planned at Tottenham with AVB keen to offload Tom Huddlestone, Scott Parker, Emmanuel Adebayor and Assou-Ekotto. The quick sale is aimed to raise funds for David Villa & Paulinho. ( The Sun)

- Oscar Cardozo is tipped to be Carlos Tevez's replacement at Manchester City. After a public dust up with Benfica Coach Jorge Jesus City look set to launch a 14.5 million pound bid. ( The Sun )

- Arsenal are chasing Queens Park Rangers custodian Julio Cesar, with QPR looking to clear their wage bill the big Brazilian will be available for a bargain price of 1.5 million pounds. ( The World Game ) 

- AC Milan are keen on Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic. The Italian giants see the 31-year-old Serbia international as the ideal partner for their incumbent centre-back Philippe Mexes. 
( Daily Mirror )

- Victorian Premier League Powerhouse South Melbourne let go players during the week accusing them of treating the team as a 'social club'. Club powerbroker's want success this year and they have already proved that by signing former MLS and Eredivisie striker Nick Soolsma. ( Source )

East Asia Socceroos squad announced

The train on squad for the East Asia games has been announced with a one week training camp being held in Terrigal starting on Monday. The biggest surprises are Newcastle Jets Ruben Zadkovich and Wanderers new boy Tomi Juric. Finally Josh Rose has been rewarded for his consistency over the past two seasons, but still no Nikolai Topor-Stanley who despite being the dominant centre half in the league still cant get a look in. 

The full squad is:

Dario Vidosic

Eugene Galekovic

Ivan Franjic 

Jade North

Matt Smith

Josh Rose

Mitchell Duke

Trent Sainsbury 

Archie Thompson

Mark Milligan

Mitch Nichols

Nathan Coe

Craig Goodwin

Mark Birighitti

Ruben Zadkovich

Josh Risdon

Micheal Thwaite 

Scott Jamieson

Aaron Mooy

Tomi Juric 

THE SOCCEROOS SUCCESFUL WAR ON IRAQ.

It's been just over a week since The Socceroos secured a finals spot at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the victory still tastes as sweet as ever. A beautiful headed goal from Josh Kennedy was enough to give Australia the victory over Iraq in a match that ended 1 nil. It's only fitting that the man once nicknamed "Jesus" (Josh Kennedy) was the man to take us to Brazil, as the 30 year old Striker proved to be the saviour that night. It's also poetic given the statue which overlooks Rio De Janeiro is the statue of Jesus Christ. To say the Socceroos path to the World Cup was rocky would be putting it mildly. A 2-1 loss to Jordan in September last year followed by a couple of frustrating draws with Oman and Japan seemingly put the Socceroos 2014 World Cup hopes in doubt. That all changed on the night of June 18, 2013 in Sydney when Australia came up trumps with a 1 nil victory over Iraq in front of 80,000 fans. Although the future for Australian Soccer looks bright with another World Cup appearance in the bag, a lot of work still needs to be done between now and June 12, 2014.

Part of Australia's shaky qualifying campaign for Brazil 2014 was down to (at times) poor selections and an unspoken rift between the coach and players. Now that the job is done and the Socceroos are in to the World Cup, this will surely alleviate any previous tension some players may have had with Holger Osieck. Needless to say emotions ran high after Tim Cahill was subsituted late in the Iraq game with the scores tied at 0-0. However 20 minutes later when the final whistle sounded, the pair (Cahill and Osieck) could be seen embracing each other with hugs and smiles and any unpleasant feelings towards each other were seemingly forgotten. The job now for Osieck is to concentrate on which players he'll pick to be in the starting 11 throughout the whole tournament in 2014. There needs to be structure and stability when it comes to the Starting 11 players and there positions. Australia cannot afford to implement a heavy rotation policy between now and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, let alone during the tournament. With the 2014 World Cup still 12 months away there's still plenty of time to make preparations, but as for when the tournament starts for Australia? It starts now.

Written by Alex Stilianos.

Socceroos vs Jordan 3,2,1 Man of the Match awards

The Socceroos took a step closer to World Cup qualification with a convincing 4-0 win over Jordan at Ethihad stadium tonight. After that great performance against Japan last week the Roos kept the momentum with a brilliant collective effort across the park against the Jordanians. Our man of the match was an easy decision but the 2 and 1 points weren't nearly as easy. 

3. Robbie Kruse 

We could go on and on about the amazing turn around Robbie Kruse has made in his football career, but he really has established himself as one of Australia's best players. He was by far the man of the match tonight and if we are to make Brazil he will be an integral part of our plans in Rio and also into the future.

2. Tim Cahill 

Australia's proven performer , you can never question his effort when he pulls on the green and gold and when the day comes that he has to retire he will leave a massive hole. Scored another great header tonight and tore the Jordanian defence apart. 

1. Lucas Neil

A huge display from the skipper in the past two games, love him or hate him he is a great leader. Another solid performance at the back with big Sasa and was lucky enough to score his first Socceroos goal ever!. 

Introducing Terrace Australis

Its been a long time coming but we now have our first known active supporters group for the Socceroos called Terrace Australis. Our captain Lucas Neil has always been a big supporter of increasing the fan base of the national team but this World Cup qualifying campaign it seems something has finally been done about it. Terrace Australis have been in the football news this week after finally gaining recognition for a lot of hard work in setting up the fan group. When you think your a big supporter of the Socceroos you meet people like Stephen Southworth ( member of Terrace Australis ) and he makes you realise that you are just another average supporter. Its purely amazing the passion and pride some people take in supporting their favourite football team, one example is Terrace Australis have organised a 74th minute 'hop' which pays tribute to the first Socceroo's team that qualified for the 1974 World Cup. insidetheboxFC was so taken back by this movement that we had to find out more about Terrace Australis.

1. Can you tell our readers more about Terrace Australis, when were you formed and why were you formed ?.

Terrace Australis started with a few passionate Socceroos fans which came from various locations. We came together with the same objective of improving the Australian Home End. The reason for starting the new active support was to give the home end a kick start after the Oman game where the atmosphere was slightly embarrassing.

2 .Was this in the pipeline for some time now or was Lucas Neil's frequent call to arms this campaign you're inspiration?.

Lucas Neill has pleaded for all Socceroos fans to step up and make the home games a fortress, if the Australian captain notices it shouldn’t we do something about it ?

3. The atmosphere the Japanese fans created on Tuesday was just unreal, is this what we should be aiming for the Socceroos?.

The Japanese fans are amongst the best in Asia we will need a vast improvement to match them, though this should be seen as a challenge for us to get into the stands, learn the chants, bring the colour and stand and sing for 90 minutes.

 4. We've seen active support in the A - League really blossom over the last few years but Socceroo matches really seem to stay purely a spectator event why do you think that is?.

The difference between A-league and the Socceroos is that we see our respected clubs every week for 6 months, it’s easy to get swept away and contribute to that. The Socceroos play 6-7 games a year in Australia in different cities, with only the most dedicated fans making all the games. Hopefully with a renewed effort for active support people will see the National team games as something to get excited about in terms of active support.

 5. Active support really shows the passion that fans have for football, we can imagine you have made some sacrifices in getting this group set up, you have your own website that exercise isnt cheap in its self?.

Yes, many sacrifices have been made however we do this week in week out for our respective clubs. That's what passion is all about

6. Have you had any support from the FFA or from current or ex players?.

We do have the support of the FFA, we need to work closely with them to ensure things happen without incident, similar to active bays work with their clubs.

Lucas Neill has spoken to a few of us, he gave us a fire up similar to those you’d expect from the captain to the rest of the team.

7. Does stadium security in Australia make it difficult for active support ?. 

Ensuring we have clear lines of communications and both parties understand expectations of active support we can work together.

8. Ultimately if we secure world cup qualification to Brazilian will you be taking a tour party to Rio?.

Firstly we need to qualify and it’s important that all Socceroos fans if able to get to Melbourne and Sydney, they come create the fortress. From this point we should have created a good foundation of chants and choreo that will follow all active supporters to brazil.  

9. How do we find out more about you or how do we join the terrace Australis movement?.

Join the forum Terraceaustralis.com.au contribute to the conversation help shape a new beginning in active support for the national team

A - League Off Season Rumours

Usually with football off seasons, their is endless speculation and rumours of player movements. But so far this A - League off season things have been quiet. Mitch Nichols has followed Ange to the Victory whilst former Victory coach Ernie Merrick takes charge at Wellington Phoenix. We've searched far and wide and used all of our sources, this is what we are hearing....


Joel Griffiths seeking a return to China

After only arriving at the Sky Blues in December rumours are circulating that Joel Griffiths is already keen to return to China. The attraction of playing with his brother Adam and superstar Alessandro Del Piero was a big reason in Joel choosing to return to the A League. But after the release of his brother and the gloss wearing off the ADP effect, insidetheboxFC understands that Joel Griffiths wants to return to the mega bucks of the Chinese Super League.

Trent Sainsbury to Bolton

One of the reasons Trent Sainsbury's move to FC Basel hasn't officially been completed is due to a late surge by Championship side Bolton Wanderers. Wanderers boss Dougie Freedman is said to be a big fan of Sainsbury and has made a late bid for the 21 year old.

Daniel De Ridder to A - League

Former Dutch International Daniel De Ridder is the latest high profile player keen on the A - League. The former Ajax, Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic winger is keen to move down under with Melbourne Heart and Newcastle Jets both interested. The experience of De Ridder would be a great signing for such a youthful Heart side. De Ridder is also a part time Model so there is off field positives in signing Daniel as well.