So what did I miss?

Well, welcome home John Aloisi. The formerly unattached international just signed with the Central Coast Mariners in a somewhat cool and sneaky deal to allow the club two marquee players for the rest of the season. As pointed out by Philip Henderson over at Fox Sports:

The Mariners already have a marquee player in former Australian defender Tony Vidmar, but Aloisi has instead been recruited as a long-term injury replacement for Matthew Osman, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

Under A-League rules, long-term injury replacements are not included in the cap. In signing both Vidmar and Aloisi, some could argue the Mariners have found a clever way to have two marquee players on their books for the season.

Very cool indeed. And its always great when a national hero comes back to play for the league in their country. Speaking of national heroes, Tim Cahill returned to training this past Monday but not to the pitch for Everton’s loss against Liverpool.

Moving on to Advocaat watch, the potential Socceroo coach announced he will make his decision to stay in Russia or to coach Australia at the end of next week which I doubt gives him enough time to make any sort of impact on the squad going into the Nov 17 Nigeria friendly but seeing as the match is in London, one would hope he’ll at least show up.