Alternative XI: Our dearly, nearly departed

Season 2013-14 has only a few weeks remaining, before football plunges into the World Cup in Brazil and a plethora of cross-continental friendlies before we start season 2014-15.

It’s going to be a very short offseason. The World Cup usually spurs clubs to get much of their transfer business done before the tournament so that they can concentrate on getting – rather than assembling – a squad in its aftermath. Notable examples include the early signing of Robert Lewandowski by Bayern Munich from rivals Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic bowling up at Inter Milan (and the warmer weather he’s always craved).

Fallen Greek power AEK Athens have taken full advantage of the upcoming window and – according to the generally-reliable site transfermarkt.co.uk – have already signed 8 players who will arrive at the club when the movement window opens again on July 1^st.

There’s already been some significant player movement across Europe; here’s an XI of players who have already signed elsewhere. To qualify, a player must have agreed their move after the conclusion of the last transfer window (on January 31) and must not be a player either going out on, or returning from a loan.

Alternative XI: The 2014 Bosman XI

With transfer prices inflating, the most acquisition value a club can get comes from signing players whose contracts have expired. While this can happen at any time, the duration of the standard European professional contract concludes on June 31^st.

A player (or, more correctly, a player’s agent) can officially listen to offers from clubs in their present country during the last four weeks of that contract. Discussions with foreign clubs can occur in the last six months of a deal, as happened with Nemanja Vidic’s move to Inter Milan.

Don’t doubt free-agent impact: Arsenal’s slip from the summit of the EPL table this year has come with an injury to Aaron Ramsey but also a form slump from defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini, an el cheapo signing from AC Milan whose early effectiveness helped solidify a lightweight midfield.

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It’s an annual challenge of mine to try to select a reasonably-priced Premier League outfit comprising 11 new Bosman signings; usually the new guys should fit into a a wage budget of £300,000. Due to inflation, let’s expand that budget by 20% for the summer of 2014.

Goalkeepers: There aren’t many Premiership goalkeepers available for free; highlights of the list include Brad Friedel, Gomes, Mark Schwarzer and Thomas Sorenson. The best of the bunch is Lukasz Fabianski, the maligned Arsenal goalkeeper who could actually perform well for a club in European competition. Another option is Sunderland’s Kieren Westwood.

The only players to consistently start in goal this year have been Jussi Jaaskelainen at West Ham, and Crystal Palace stalwart Julian Speroni. The latter is a reliable option, steady and unflustered who at best guess wouldn’t put too great a dent in the wage budget – as opposed to Fabianski. Speroni’s in.

USMNT: The beef comes home

Michael Bradley’s return to play for Toronto FC has met with several sources citing the impact on the US Mens National Soccer Team. Could Bradley playing in a supposedly inferior league mean the US’ chances of a performing well in Brazil be somehow lessened?

Any answers will be purely speculative until the US kicks off their campaign on June 16 against Ghana. However, this trans-Atlantic shift heralds another interesting landmark in US Soccer – with Clint Dempsey arriving in August 2013, Bradley’s arrival means that most of the elite outfield talent in US men’s soccer now resides locally rather than abroad.

The nation’s three most marketable, game-changing stars – Donovan, Dempsey and Bradley – now play at home.

Only a few of the world’s top 20 teams (Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Greece and the Ukraine) can make such a boast, exemplifying the progress of MLS as a competition and highlighting both latent forces that underlie future success in US Soccer – a wide player base from which nascent stars can emerge, and an increasing fiscal robustness.

When we last explored a fictional game between US teams made up from MLS and abroad, the absolute elements of class played for Tottenham Hotspur, the LA Galaxy and AS Roma. Let’s revisit that concept now, eighteen months later and ask who would win a one-off match between a US team made up solely of MLS talent, or an XI who all play professionally away from home?

MLS XI (4-4-2):  Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Evans (Seattle Sounders), Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Besler (Sporting KC), Morrow (Toronto FC); Zusi (Sporting KC), Alonso (Seattle Sounders), Bradley (Toronto FC), Dempsey (Seattle Sounders); Donovan (LA Galaxy), Wondolowski (San Jose).

Non-MLS XI (4-4-2): Howard (Everton), Beasley (Tijuana), Cameron (Stoke City), Ream (Bolton Wanderers), Johnson (Hoffenheim); Diskerud (Rosenborg), Jones (Schalke 04), Edu (Stoke City), Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar); Altidore (Sunderland), Gomez (Tijuana).

(c) Author's own collection

In August 2012, our final verdict was that the MLS XI (featuring only four players from this iteration) would trouble their intercontinental brethren, but winning might have been a bridge too far. Now? Nine of the MLS XI are almost certainties to make the World Cup squad, with Justin Morrow and Ossie Alonso dark horses. Could the same be said for the non-MLS squad? Perhaps not.

There’s every chance that the early-2014 MLS team might be able to defeat their visiting compatriots. That such parity home and abroad reflects negatively on US Soccer is a nonsense; US Soccer is patently in as rude a health as it has ever been.

Alternative XI: New South Wales escapees

30% of all Australian First-Class contracted players have their origins in New South Wales.  However, the frequency with which players have departed Sydney for Sheffield Shield opportunities is quite alarming.

This isn’t a new phenomenon: for decades New South Wales have produced players who have achieved more for adopted states – either money or opportunity has lured players the likes of Sir Donald Bradman, Jason Arnberger, Allan Border and Jeff Thomson from the powder blue.

Now, with New South Wales sitting at the bottom of the Sheffield Shield table, it pays to examine the best players the state can’t call upon any more.  Any Australian call-ups since their departure and total First Class averages are also listed.

Position	Player	State	FC average	Call-ups
1	PJ Hughes	SA	45.51	Test, ODI
2	EJM Cowan	TAS	39.93	Test
3	TLW Cooper	SA	30.40
4	PJ Forrest	QLD	32.56	ODI
5	UT Khawaja	QLD	42.90	Test, ODI
6	JW Hastings	VIC	24.75 bat, 25.00 ball	Test, ODI, T20
7	AW O’Brien	SA	27.75 bat
8	JJ Krejza	TAS	25.19 bat, 49.59 ball	Test, ODI
9	JM Mennie	SA	23.17 ball
10	BT Cockley	WA	29.98 ball	ODI squad
11	JM Bird	TAS	16.18 ball	Test
12	MG Hogan	WA	28.66 ball

Follow the money - and talent - back to MLS

In the August 27^th issue of Sports Illustrated, senior writer Grant Wahl compiled a team of American soccer players playing abroad. Such a mainstream publication – find any dentist in the States who doesn't subscribe – publishing a full-page “lightweight” feature on US soccer is relatively rare and Wahl takes the opportunity to pull the usual names from the regular hats. It's the basic, all-purpose US men's national team.

Assembling fictitious teams is a pleasant exercise in pointlessness. Almost every blogger and journalist has done so – they stimulate discussion, can be used to illustrate a point, attract pageviews like crazy and finally, much of the legwork (ie. research) is already completed meaning a quick turnaround. (Look here and here for some examples on Goal Posts).

For writers, they're our side of an enjoyable pub debate.

However, this team made for an interesting test-case. This is because many of the best US footballers – as with Canada, Australia and several other nations – play in Europe. The Americans, however, are a special breed as the quality of their local game is improving as its popularity increases. No longer does a player have to move to Europe to fulfill their footballing destiny or monetary desires, meaning that in the past half-decade the standard of MLS has taken a quantum leap.

MLS, while of inconsistent quality, can produce scintillating football and as the standard improves, so does local talent. Due to the Impact, Whitecaps and Toronto FC, Canadian football reaps some of the same benefits.

In fact, Major League Soccer has developed the quality of US football to a standard now where players earning a quid locally could quite easily compete with – and, if the conditions were right, perhaps defeat – a team made up of “exports”. This is a major signal that the league is prospering the sport both at a grass-roots and professional level.

While Wahl's team undoubtedly boasts more class than a team drawn solely from MLS, the gap in quality isn't as different as you'd initially expect. A team derived of American players who play only in MLS could be as potent as many European sides:

US MLS XI: (4-3-3) – Rimando (RSL), Beitashour (San Jose), Clark (Houston), O. Gonzalez (LA), Pearce (NY), O. Alonso (Seattle), Donovan (LA), Davis (Houston), E. Johnson (Seattle), Shea (Dallas), Wondolowski (San Jose).

courtesy: zimbio.com

While the team lacks je ne sais quoi, it would certainly be enough to trouble their overseas brethren. Eighteen years removed from the iconic 1994 World Cup – the event that begat Major League Soccer – the spot in general is seeing the results of hard work put in by the USSF/US Soccer.

Teams made up of local players in many of the “second-tier” big football countries such as Korea, Japan or Mexico would rival – if not defeat – their globe-trotting compatriots. These leagues, new and old, are deep enough to compete financially and competition-wise for the country's best players. The result is Keisuke Honda spearheading Japan's wonderful 2010 World Cup and Asian Cup campaigns or a major club like Arsenal signing Park Chu-Young.

The next step up in competition is when the league produces entire teams capable of contesting the CONCACAF Champions League and eventually, competing – if not beating – South American and European clubs at the World Club Championships.

Progress has been slow, but assured. Now the league is reaping the rewards.

Alternative XI: Euro 2012 Overachievers

As is usual for a major tournament, Euro 2012 has allowed us to witness the full spectrum of players from World's Best to those who walk a matter of metres to the ground that's always been their home. This tournament, we've had the opportunity to see players previously anonymous make a stamp on the football world – in fact, many of the best performed players aren't paid by Real Madrid, Liverpool or Juventus, but by smaller clubs. The tournament is made brighter by those who rise from anonymity.

Here's a previously relatively-unheralded XI who've made their name at Euro 2012:

GK – Przemyslaw Tyton (Poland): Despite entering the year the fourth-choice Poland keeper, made himself a home-country hero by saving a penalty with his first touch of the tournament. Whether he is replaced by the shaky but better-credentialled Wojciech Szczesny is now a legitimate question, a prospect unthinkable before the tournament.

RB – Theodore Gebre Selassie (Czech Republic): Kills the grass on the right side of the pitch at Slovan Liberec, who will compete in the 2012-13 Champions League after winning the Czech Gambrinus Liga. The might do so without their right back, who will doubtless have admirers after his two performances so far at Euro 2012.

CB – Mats Hummels (Germany): How can the most desired young centre-back in world football, playing for the second-best attended club in Europe, be classified as an emerging player? Simple: Mats Hummels is elegant on the ball and resolute off it and gets his work done with the absolute minimum of fuss without courting attention at all. Releasing him will haunt Bayern Munich for years.

CB – Damien Perquis (Poland): Perquis came so close to snatching a win for Poland against Russia while keeping the tricksy combo of Dzagoev and Arshavin from wreaking havoc in the Poland defence. He'll should be acquired by larger French club from Sochaux on the back of his impressive Euros.

LB – Vaclav Pilar (Czech Republic): Pilar has scored twice so far at Euro 2012 and looks to be another smart piece of scouting by Bundesliga club Wolfsburg, who have already arranged for his transfer from Viktoria Plzen.

RM – Mathieu Debuchy (France): It's no wonder he's been linked with clubs as storied as Manchester United and Barcelona. Although typically a right-sided defender, he plays with such attacking zest he fits in well here in the midfield. He was probably the player of the match in France's first match against England despite flying under the radar until Lille's emergence last season.

CM – Roman Shirokov (Russia): Practised Russian football observers such as James Appell tipped the thirty-year old as Russia's breakout player. He lasted all of one match at Euro 2008 at centre-back, but links the beaters in defence (Berezeutsky and Ignashevich) with the seeker in attack (Arshavin and Dzagoev).

CM – Niki Zimling (Denmark): His injury in Denmark's second match allowed the Portuguese a much easier run in the midfield than Danish coach Morten Olson had hoped. Regaining him for their crucial encounter with Germany will be crucial Danish hopes of advancing

LM – Andriy Yarmolenko (Ukraine): The resounding flop of Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea may have previously kept “the new Shevchenko” at Dynamo Kiev. After wrong-footing a redoubtable Sweden defence on many occasions in the Ukraine's first match, he's unlikely to be playing domestic ball for much longer.

AM – Michael Krohn-Dehli (Denmark): Fizzed the ball between Dutch 'keeper Maarten Stekelenburg's legs to win the Danes their first game of the tournament and leave the Oranje reeling. A constant worker so far this tournament and able to put together moments of brilliance despite middling club form at Brondby.

FC – Mario Mandzukic (Croatia): Took two quality goals in Croatia's first match against Ireland to put the Balkan nation in a great position in a tough group. Another discovery by the tireless Wolfsburg scouting system, he doesn't get much press despite scoring twenty times last season.  

Alternative XI: Footballing Autofills

The fantastically funny Dave Gorman podcast features a segment called “Autofill your boots”. In it, a listener is invited to answer quiz questions which have been autofilled by Google's search engine algorithms.

It works like this: if you type the querulous words “Can you” into Google's query box, it suggest the next most likely conclusions to your request. These autofill answers are predicated by one's location and often by search preferences. As you can see below, the most popular completions in the case of “Can you” include “run it”, “feel the love tonight lyrics”, “freeze cheese”, “get mono twice”, “overdose on vitamin c” and “print from an ipad” amongst some other more unsavoury inquiries. Dave then asks the challenger if you can, in fact, contract mononucleosis twice.

 This parlour-game derives from Google's reputation alongside Wikipedia as the font of all knowledge, arbiter of all sexual health questions and the bane of pub trivia masters everywhere. When we enter certain football personalities into Google, the autofills can amuse, tell a sordid tale, sum up or even reveal a public concern for their (potential) religious views or sexuality.

So, without any further introduction, here's the Autofill Eleven – with subs included.

Alternative XI: 2012 Bosman Transfers

Even deeply embroiled in a recession, football fans expect their respective clubs to restructure their playing squads during the offseason. This summer is likely to be remarkable because it features a major tournament; this befuddles the break's early weeks as players inflate their purchase prices with tantalising glimpses of form or potential.

A nearly pathological desire for value for money now permeates football at all levels. Players and transactions are judged early, often and viciously. This means the best transfers a club can make are often those which cost nothing: a Bosman move, where players become free agents after their current contract expires. The full list of Premiership players available “on a Bosman” is posted at Goal.com or transfermarkt.co.uk, although both need updating.

So here's the big question: could we frugally build a squad capable of surviving using players acquired only via Bosman moves?

Firstly, we should look for strength down back. I'd look no further than Fulham's Mark Schwarzer to start a team with – partly because he's still, at 39, one of the best shot-stoppers in the Premiership; and also because he's my favourite Socceroo of all time. His closest competition comes from Jussi Jaaskelainen, who has fallen behind Adam Bogdan at Bolton for no apparent reason.

The best defenders available include Aston Villa's Carlos Cuellar, Jose Boswinga of Chelsea, perma-crocked Ledley King and his erstwhile partner Jonathon Woodgate, who's now at Stoke City. Unfortunately, this list includes an criminally overpaid full-back and two centre-halves renowned for legs made from glass, so if it's Value for Money we're looking for, it's time to search for alternate options.

The classy-but-brutal Zdynek Grygera is available, but coming off knee surgery. The man he was ostensibly to replace, Stephen Kelly, looks likely to leave Craven Cottage as well; Maynor Figueroa was thought to be a wonderful left-sided defender as recently a Roberto Martinez ago, while Clint Hill and Fitz Hall have featured intermittently for QPR this term.

In terms of durability, skill and cost, however I'd suggest lumping for a foursome of Cuellar, Figueroa, Bolton's Gretar Steinsson and finally, Everton's Atlas Sylvain Distin.

As both Swansea and Norwich Cities have proved this season, a competitive midfield is crucial in not only saving games, but winning them. The best centre-mids available include Mohamed Diame and Jordi Gomez of Wigan, Mahamadou Diarra of Fulham (who's likely to see his deal extended, and therefore ineligible), Newcastle's Danny Guthrie and Fulham OAP Danny Murphy. Murphy can still thoroughly influence a game, so despite his 35 year-old legs I'm selecting him alongside Diame for a combative and effective pairing.

The decisions out wide are made simpler by the presence of Blackburn prodigy Junior Hoilett, who walks into the wide-left position (even though he naturally belongs on the opposite side). After kicking the tires twice before deciding Florent Malouda isn't worth the sticker price and that Martin Petrov's form has slipped too far since his debut Bolton season, the man I want for the right is Cameroon megalith Somen Tchoyi. It's a relief to have these two available because other options aren't exciting at all: Akos Buzsaky, Peter Lovenkrands, Hogan Ephraim and Jerome Thomas.

Up front, we'll surprise by signing the cheap (but perhaps litigious) Ryan Noble, who has impressed every judge but his managers at Sunderland. He'll pair Hugo Rodallega, who this time last year led Wigan from a fate worse than relegation into another year (or more) of Premier League football. We'll have to rely on pace for incision, rather than height or tricks, but this duo comes significantly cheaper than “name” forwards Andrei Arshavin, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba. Other options include Stoke City's Ricardo Fuller, the desir'd Andy Johnson (again of Fulham).

Squad (4-4-2): Schwarzer, Steinsson, Cuellar, Distin, Figueroa; Tchoyi, Murphy, Diame, Hoilett; Noble, Rodallega.

Total weekly wage budget estimate: ₤300, 000.