jonovision

Not sure what to make of this, from Thursday:

Finally confirmation of Pantemis:

Could be, but Paolucci is definitely in town and only arrived a few weeks ago, which wouldn't make a lot of sense if he was cutting ties.

Would you prefer if the bulk of last year's terrible squad was returning?

I hope Valour keeps something close to its 2019 black away kit, which IMO was among the top 1 or 2 jersey designs in the league, home or away.

I like the Forge jerseys much better than last year's edition, which was just an adult-sized Timbits soccer shirt

It's being reported that he is coming at close the league average salary, which is good considering his recent inactivity.

^ Paolucci is definitely in town at the moment, so one would wonder what the point of that would be if he wasn't coming back for 2020.

In my opinion all of the teams improved on their year 1 jerseys except Valour. Though I wasn't a big fan of the 2019 home kit either. The away kits were fantastic. Are they changing for 2020?

Waterman does a decent job of defending, but was sloppy after he'd won the ball. Hopefully that improves with greater familiarity with his new teammates.

He cites the departure of Bustos, Petrasso, and LBG, without even the hint of an acknowledgment that these moves will have opened up a big chunk of salary space. He seems to think that is too much money to be spent on a defender, after going on TV last year and over and over (fairly) dumping on the Valour back line. He doesn't seem to think it's reasonable to make a turnaround in a year or two in an 8 team league in its second season with massive turnover across the board. I think he posted hastily and regrets being so categorical.

I haven't gone back far enough in the thread to see if his return had already been confirmed, but Michele Paolucci is back in town, according to his Instagram. @Lofty will be happier to learn this news than I am, but he does fill a need if Attardo is in fact gone.

He looked out of place when Gale insisted on playing him on the wing, which is very obviously not his position. He was not alone in looking poor when played out of position by Gale in 2019. He does have a poacher's instinct, not all of his goals were mere tap-ins, and it's not surprising that he would earn interest from elsewhere, though big European interest seems like a stretch.

I think the May-June success and subsequent dip had more to do with bad results quickly taking the shine off of a new toy. My read of the Valour audiences in the stadium were that they were younger, more diverse, and less likely to part of the managerial class that are the typical cottage country type.

Only two Wednesdays, one of which is Canada Day. One Friday evening. All of the remaining home dates are Saturday or Sunday afternoons. With the usual qualifications about cottage country weekends in summer, that's a pretty ideal schedule. Hard to complain, especially when compared with what we saw last year.