Central Coast Mariners head coach Mark Jackson has dismissed talk of a possible January move for winger Christian Theoharous whilst also teasing fans over potential new signings for the reigning Isuzu UTE A-League champions.
The 25-year-old has featured 10 times for the Mariners this season in both the Isuzu UTE A-League and the AFC Champions League Elite including playing the full 90 minutes of their 3-1 win over Western Sydney.
However, despite winning two A-League championships at the club since joining from Western United the winger has yet to cement himself as a regular starter with the club, prompting speculation a move could be on the cards.
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“Christian is going nowhere,” said Jackson when speaking in his post-match press conference following their win at CommBank Stadium.
“Christian is staying with us. I had a conversation with Chrissy. Listen, I think other people know that he is a talented player.
“But we had a conversation the other day, and he loves it at the Mariners. He sees his future here, he enjoys working with the coaching staff and he feels at home.
“So when a player is like that, it’s a tell-tale sign that they’re not going anywhere and you saw with his performance tonight, and he’s only going to get better with that. We want in part of our squad.”

Whilst speculation over Theoharous’ future may have been put to bed Jackson did admit though the club is likely to bid farewell to a few players before the window closes on February 12 in order to bring new faces in.
“There’s no doubt we are looking to bring maybe a couple of players in in January. You know, I’ve openly said that in my past interviews as well, and you’re always looking to strengthen and get better and develop the squad.
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“So that’s an area where myself and Matt Simon are working on that at the minute. Whether anything happens there, I’m unsure, but yeah, that’s an area where we can develop the squad.
“I can’t give you any names or anything like that, but yeah, some attacking players we’re looking at I’m hopeful we can get those additions to our squad.
He added: “The ones we’re looking at would really, really enhance our team. So hopefully we can do that. But like I said, if it happens, it happens. If not, we build our team, we improve our players, and we we keep pushing forward.”
“It’s probably looking to move players on but we’ll see what comes about,” said Jackson when later asked whether or not the Mariners would look to loan players out or move them on permanently this window.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios (that) change all the time during the transfer window. You know, there’s a lot of movements. It’s only just opened as well. So we’ll see what the next few days bring.
“Like I said, we want to build our squad as well, but we’ve certainly got a good squad at the minute who’s togetherness is really high and and that’s something we want to build on.
“We’ll have to see what happens and whether the text messages come in or the calls come in. I’m sure Simmo (Mariners’ Sporting Director Matt Simon) will be checking his messages afterwards, but we’ll see. We work closely together (so) we’ll see what comes on Monday.”
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Goals from Alou Kuol and substitute Ryan Edmondson had the Mariners in a commanding position at CommBank Stadium before Wanderers forward James Temelkovski bagged his first Isuzu UTE A-League goal late in the contest to ensure a nervy finish in Sydney’s West.
However a late breakaway goal from the excellent Mikael Doka ensured the Mariners picked up just their fourth win of the season to move within four points of the Top Six.