Welcome to A-Leagues Alumni: A weekly piece that keeps you up to date with the best stories from our products flying the flag abroad. The acronyms of the A-Leagues club(s) each player has represented are in brackets after their name.
A-Leagues’ legend lays out plan for Lyon
Joe Montemurro (MVC, MCY) is at the helm of the most successful club in UEFA Women’s Champions League history. Lyon also boast the most titles in France.
So, how do you make the “best team in the world” better? The former Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City boss laid out his vision for the eight-time European champions, who boast CommBank Matildas star Ellie Carpenter (WSW, CBR, MCY).
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Montemurro will be supporter by another Australian on his coaching staff – former Melbourne Victory youth boss Joe Palatsides (MCY, MVC) in 2024-25.
“I am obviously very hell-bent on the way I want to play, it’s important to me,” Montemurro told the Guardian.
“It’s right to make the best women’s team in the world an entertaining team, the team that you’re going to come to see some magnificent football.”
Carpenter and Lyon won the league last season and lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final. It was the 11th time they reached the decider in 15 seasons.
Montemurro added: “They’ve won everything. But the challenge is to keep winning, to keep the team at the top, and to lift the style of the way we want to play and make that really part of how we assess success and failure.”
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Montemurro was head coach of the A-Leagues All Stars Women’s team in May as the Liberty A-League’s best pushed WSL giants Arsenal in a 1-0 defeat at Marvel Stadium.
The 54-year-old guided Melbourne Victory to a second-placed finish in 2014, then crossed town to take charge of Melbourne City, where he won a Premiership and back-to-back Championships, while also becoming the first manager to go through a full season undefeated.
Then Montemurro oversaw Arsenal’s 2018-19 WSL triumph – the Gunners have not won the league since. At Juventus, he delivered an historic treble and departed the Italian powerhouse with five trophies.
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“It’s about changing the mentality of what a win is and what a successful result is,” Montemurro continued. “We have to be able to walk off from a game having won thinking about the things we worked on and what we’re trying to achieve, in terms of being a top team and the way we want to play, and thinking about whether we have achieved that.
“There will be things that we won’t do well. There will be things that we’ll do very, very well. There’ll be days where we do OK. That’s normal until the philosophy, the methodology, becomes a common language.
“Once it’s sunk in then it becomes automatic. We got that probably in year three at Arsenal. But, during those three years of growth, there was always an assessment of how we wanted to play, how we wanted to do things and whether we were being successful in that.”
Lyon are under new ownership after Michele Kang – the owner of Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses – took over in February.
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“What she’s trying to achieve is really unique and really fantastic for the women’s game,” Montemurro said. “To have an innovation hub that challenges how we facilitate female footballers, physically, mentally, medically and so on, is really, really unique and really, really important.
“That’s one of the things that I was attracted to, that bringing together of a group that works for female footballers, for what a female footballer looks like, and how we can get that level of high performance. It’s been brilliant and we’ve had a lot of contact. We’ve been discussing a lot of approaches going forward and she’s really hands-on, which is fantastic.
“Top leaders and successful leaders know where their limitations are and where they need to put in people of expertise. The most important thing is to find people that you trust, that you can rely on, that you know will keep challenging and being better. She’s successful for putting the right people in place and that’s why she’s been successful outside of football, and that’s why she will be successful within the women’s game.”
Portsmouth deliver update on former Mariners star
Jacob Farrell (CCM) and his Portsmouth debut is on hold due to injury but the two-time A-Leagues champion is chomping at the bit to run out in the EFL Championship.
Farrell swapped treble-winning Central Coast Mariners for newly promoted Portsmouth at the end of last month, joining forces with fellow Australians Kusini Yengi (ADL) and Sammy Silvera (NEW, CCM).
However, the 21-year-old is recovering from a knee injury that has forced him to sit out the start of the season.
But Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has tipped the young gun to hit the ground running at Fratton Park.
“It was a difficult one for Jacob. He had a bit of time here before he could train, then we didn’t have too many days’ training before he picked up an injury,” said Mousinho.
“I don’t know exactly how long it’ll take him to get back, but he’s a fit lad and when he’s back in training he’ll be raring to go.
“I don’t think it will be long once he’s back in training, but he’s still a couple of weeks away from getting back involved.
“I would’ve been confident he would’ve been available for the Leeds game had he not got injured. Whether we would’ve put him straight in I don’t know, but he would’ve been available.
“One of his big attributes is his athleticism and how well he’s developed for such a young player.
“It’s difficult coming over from Australia and adjusting to the new tempo and a different lifestyle, your world is literally and figuratively turned upside down.
“I think for Jacob he’s settled in well and it’s a contact injury which has just opened up his MCL a little bit. He’ll be fine once he settles down, he’ll be great for us.”
Silvera played in Portsmouth’s 0-0 draw with Luton Town over the weekend, while Yengi was again absent due to a groin problem.
Elsewhere abroad…
Ange Postecoglou (BRI, MVC) and his Tottenham started the Premier League season with a 1-1 draw at newly promoted Leicester City. The A-Leagues legend has Mile Jedinak (CCM), Nick Montgomery (CCM) and Sergio Raimundo (CCM) on his coaching staff.
Awer Mabil (ADL) was sensationally involved in eight goals as Grasshoppers crushed fifth-tier outfit Regensdorf 9-0 in the Swiss Schweizer Pokal over the weekend.
The former Adelaide United star and current Socceroo scored three goals and set up five others to lead his team into the next round of the cup.
Alessandro Circati (PER) made his Serie A debut for newly promoted Parma.
The Perth Glory academy graduate started for Parma in their season-opening 1-1 draw with Fiorentina. He made 10 clearances in matchweek one – the most of any player in the competition per Opta.
Henry Hore (BRI) was the match winner for Gangwon FC in their 3-2 success against Gwangju in South Korea’s K League 1.
On loan from Brisbane Roar, Hore came off the bench in the 71st minute and scored four minutes late against Aaron Calver‘s (SYD, WUN, PER) Gwangju.
After 23 matches without defeat to start the season, Kevin Muscat (MVC) saw his league-leading Shanghai Port fall to city rivals Shanghai Shenhua 3-1 in the Chinese Super League.
Shanghai Port – who had won 16 straight games in the CSL – opened the scoring but had a player sent off in the first half as Shenhua scored three goals during the final 17 minutes of the top-of-the-table clash. Muscat’s side remain two points clear at the summit.
John Hutchinson (CCM) oversaw Yokohama F.Marinos’ 3-1 victory away to Kawasaki Frontale in Japan’s J1 League.
Peter Cklamovski‘s (PER, ADL, MVC) FC Tokyo drew 0-0 against city rivals Tokyo Verdy in the J1 League. In-coming Melbourne Victory goalkeeper and Nagoya Grampus captain Mitch Langerak (MVC) started the 2-1 defeat to Sanfrecce Hiroshima – who boast Tolgay Arslan (MCY).
Thomas Deng (MVC) played the full 90 minutes as Albirex Niigata beat Avispa Fukuoka 1-0, while Mitch Duke (CCM, WSW) came off the bench in Machida Zelvia’s 4-0 rout of Jubilo Iwata.
CommBank Matildas forward Remy Siemsen (SYD, WSW) made her debut for Kristianstads DFF in their goalless draw with Vittsjo GIK in Sweden’s top flight. Clare Polkinghorne (BRI) started for Kristianstads.
Joe Gauci (ADL) was on the bench for Aston Villa in their Premier League opener against West Ham, which they won 2-1.
Mat Ryan (CCM) was on the bench for Italian giants Roma in their Serie A opener against Cagliari. They drew 0-0.
In England’s League One, Keanu Baccus (WSW) started Mansfield Town’s 3-3 draw with Burton Albion.
Lewis Miller (CCM) played the entire game for Hibernian in their 3-1 Scottish League Cup defeat to Celtic, while Cam Devlin (SYD, WEL, NEW) came off the bench as Hearts lost 2-0 to Falkirk. Kye Rowles (BRI, CCM) was an unused substitute.
Jackson Irvine (MVC) and Connor Metcalfe (MCY) started St Pauli’s 3-2 extra-time win over fourth-tier club Hallescher FC in the DFB Pokal first round.
Captain of the club, Aiden O’Neill‘s (BRI, CCM and MCY) Standard Liege lost for the first time this season – upstaged 1-0 by Kortrijk in Belgium’s First Division A.
In the Danish Superligaen, Paul Izzo (ADL, CCM, MVC) started in Randers’ 2-1 defeat at the hands of Sonderjyske.
Gianni Stensness (WEL, CCM) played the full game for Viking as they lost 2-1 to Rosenborg in Norway’s Eliteserien.
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