FC Edmonton Roster 2012

[jedinathan]

Start the rumour mill...
FCEdmonton.com has a blog up from David Monsalve, who discusses the final game of the season, and some future plans. In the article he mentions that some players have already been relased and won't be back for 2012.
FC Tampa Bay has also released some players and has stated that they will not be back next year.

So who's staying and who's going? Personally I hope Baart is gone, and I wouldn't be heartbroken at seeing Oppong gone as well. There are a few "meh" players like Antoniuk (like the guy, but his play was not that consistant) that I'm also on the fence about.
I'd love to see Hamilton, Saiko, Rago, Jonke, Monsalve (believe he'll be with the club for a bit based on the blog though), Parker and Porter back for 2012. Some seriously impressive young talent there.

[Lord Bob]

Hand Saiko, Hamilton, and Porter blank cheques and tell them to write in what they think is fair. Core players.

Sidra, Surprenant, Semenets, Monsalve, and Rago seem worth keeping. Parker might be depending on how he's recovering from his injury but I'd rather have Monsalve in any case.

Depending on his salary, van Leerdam might be worth holding onto but he's hardly a superstar at this level.

Cut Smith, Baart, Antoniuk, and most of the fringe guys.

The rest? Maybe worth holding onto but replaceable. There are guys like Yamada, Jonke, and Saler who are likely to be good value contracts but are hardly first-class players; still, if you can find somebody better on the market don't hesitate.

[ThiKu]

FCE has to realize as well that they are a selling club - unless they can offer Saiko, Hamilton and Porter more than other clubs can they must sell if they aren't under contract or lose them for free when they are. Have to assume Lam will be back next year?

[Oranje]

I don’t spend any time in this FCE/NASL area of the forum, but does FCE have any academy-like program or any news about an academy being created?

[Soccerpro]

FCE has to realize as well that they are a selling club - unless they can offer Saiko, Hamilton and Porter more than other clubs can they must sell if they aren't under contract or lose them for free when they are. Have to assume Lam will be back next year?

I agree. If they can make a couple hundred thousand dollars selling these players then that goes a long way to balancing the books. If they had an academy to produce new players in their place then you have a business model that is in use all across the world.

[jedinathan]

I believe an academy was promised to Lodeweges but never happened. My guess is that it was part of Mel K's "legacy" that needed to be fixed when Mel ended up leaving. Seems to me there were a lot of empty promises/big talk during that point of the clubs life.

There is a reserve side that plays regular competitive games, as well as a connection to the Edmonton Drillers club. No official academy as if yet, but I could imagine one when the club becomes more respected/well-known in Alberta. They're battling quite a few camps when it comes to attracting young players but the success of players like Hamilton and Sakio can go a long way towards attracting the interest in an academy.
As for Lam... No clue, there hasn't been any official comments since the earthquake in Japan. I'd love to see him back, but he has a few appearances over there.

[amc48c]

Does anyone have any news on who has been freed?

Be great if someone from the FO can confirm who.

[ditty]

There is a reserve side that plays regular competitive games

Well, there wasn't really a reserve team per se in the sense of that of the MLS clubs or even the Impact's Attak in the CPSL. FCE had only one roster and the reserve side was more or less made up of players not getting playing time (which I guess isn't much different than the previous examples I cited). I would also not consider the reserve games "competitive" in the sense that they were friendlies with AMSL clubs and not league or tournament fixtures. Apologies that this is a bit nitpicky but I post it hoping that at some point FCE will have something of a proper reserve side that will enable them to incorporate even more young players into the club structure.

[jedinathan]

Hey no worries mate. I wanted to list the league etc, but was feeling lazy and couldn't remember.

I figured they were more competitive than if the club had been playing against themselves. At least they were seeing different players every week, and there were actually some injuries that took place during the games (Lamire broke a few ribs and punctured a lung in one), so I figured the boys were at least trying. I agree, having a formal academy would be awesome. I know quite a few of the guys came through Concordia, and the club seems to have a good relationship with the University College, so maybe they could work something out with them to get first look at youngins.

[jedinathan]

Does anyone have any news on who has been freed?

Be great if someone from the FO can confirm who.

I'm not holding my breath. While the FO is way more organized than they were last year, and there's more info being released, the club has always played its cards super tight to the chest when talking about contracts. I don't know of the length of contacts of any of the players (with the exception of the Dutch two from 2010).
Sinkgraven is signed for at least 2012, Baart should have expired in 2011 and Matthijs also expired in 2011 (has the11.ca has already written that he left and probably won't be back).