Ahead of the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season, Western Sydney Wanderers head coach Alen Stajcic speaks to aleagues.com.au about the signing of World Cup winner Juan Mata and his plan to turn the Wanderers into a formidable force this campaign.
Alen Stajcic has dealt with his fair share of adversity during his 22-year coaching career.
Whether that’s dealing with the pressure of coaching the CommBank Matildas, stepping in to take over the Central Coast Mariners at their lowest ebb or even taking charge of Perth Glory during a difficult situation in the 2023-24 season.
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“I don’t think anyone in their right mind or in their sane mind would go into a club that’s already in receivership, but I appear to be a glutton for punishment!”
Awaiting Stajcic now though is what some would argue is an even bigger challenge: turning Western Sydney Wanderers into serious title contenders.
Not that the Western Sydney local is fazed by the prospect. If anything, he’s relishing the chance to exact change at a club he believes has been under-performing for too long.
And the good news for Wanderers fans is Stajcic believes he knows what needs fixing – and crucially – how to do so.
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“The opportunity to come home and represent the area where I’ve grown up, where I belong and where I’ve lived my whole life doesn’t come along very often. For me personally it’s a little bit of a spiritual home coming.
“Being in and around the league for a long time as either a coach, spectator or a fan of the league, I’ve seen the trials and tribulations of the Wanderers over its existence.
“Within the last seven or eight years you’d have to be honest and say there’s been more lows than highs. I know they made the finals a couple of years ago but the whole jigsaw puzzle hasn’t really worked as much as it should.
“When people talk about it being a big club… it’s almost self-defeating coming in thinking we’re a big club. We’ve actually gone backwards in a lot of respects in all of the pieces of the puzzle.
“From the engagement of the fans, which we’ve probably lost over the years for whatever reason, whether it’s COVID, whether it was a relocation for a period of time away from Parramatta Stadium.
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“The link between the junior setup and the senior setup hasn’t really produced the fruits of its labor.
“There’s so many good elements to to the junior program in terms of we’ve always known that Western Sydney is a heartland of football talent in boys and girls football… there hasn’t been that many who have come through the whole junior pathway and been regulars in the first team.
“So you know that link for whatever reason, bringing in foreigners, bringing better players, buying better players, seeing better opportunities for players at other clubs, for whatever reason, hasn’t really reaped the benefits that I think it should over that course of time.
“I think the club should be the best club in Australia. There’s no other club that has the pillars for me to be the best club in the country.”
He continued: “I’m talking about the heartland of football in terms of the junior nursery, when you look at the fan base, when you look at the passion from the fans. The facilities are world class… you have the resources to be able to bring it all together.
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“For whatever reason it hasn’t worked but I’m going to try and bring it all together. Obviously you can’t do it yourself, but with good people, with humble people and people who want to do all the hard work to make it happen I want to try and bring all those pieces together and make it work.
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“I don’t care if my tenure is three months, three years or 30 years, I’m trying to focus on the big picture, rather than just the short, quick, sugar fix of one win in the A-League.”
After ending their finals drought with qualification for the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League finals series under Marko Rudan, the Wanderers then fell short once more in season 2023-24, regressing to what has become an unfortunate norm for the side from Western Sydney.
However Stajcic believes a dramatic overhaul of the playing squad isn’t what’s required, more so a change of mentality and the acceptance of a vision that the new boss believes is achievable.
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“I think a lot of the ingredients of this team were there. I don’t think this team was far away last year, to be honest. It’s an unbelievable playing group, there’s so much unity within the group, there’s so much humility within the group.
“It’s really about what is the vision for us as a group? What are we believing together as a group that we want to achieve and what are the players believing they can achieve? I think at this point in time, it’s early, and it’s always a honeymoon period preseason, so I’m not getting carried away, but I think we’ve got amazing buy in from the group.”
A player likely to be a key member of that group currently adjusting to life under Stajcic is Spanish superstar Juan Mata.
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Boasting FIFA World Cup, European Championship and UEFA Champions League winners medals to name just a few, Mata arrived in Western Sydney to great fanfare after putting pen-to-paper on a one-year deal with the club.
But while the 36-year-old former Chelsea and Manchester United star has been there and done it when it comes to winning on the biggest stage, Stajcic says the scars of ‘marquee’ failures in the past meant the club were extra diligent when deciding whether or not to sign the Spaniard – excellent resume or not.
“I’ve been around and watched the A-League for the last 20 years and and seen so many amazing players that have come and contributed to our league, foreigners. I’m just plucking a number out on my backside but probably 10-20% have been exceptional.
“(Milos) Ninkovic, (Thomas) Broich, Diego Castro and (Besart) Berisha, who were, for me, probably the best four players in the history of the A-League.
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“Then there were other people like Shinji (Ono), (Emile) Heskey, (Alessandro) Del Piero and Dwight Yorke, who brought their own good play as well as brought in that special star factor. So there’s been those good examples, but there’s been plenty of pitfalls as well.
“So when Juan became available, my first question was not his football pedigree, but the quality of the person that was coming into our group, and it doesn’t take too much digging to see that he’s an unbelievable human being.
“Off the pitch he’s intelligent, he’s articulate, he loves the game. He’s passionate about the game. He’s hungry to play the game. He’s hungry to want to still compete. He’s hungry to give as much as he can and share what he can with his football experiences, with the people around him.
“So for me, we haven’t just got an unbelievable footballer with a history that not many can testify to, but we’ve got a human being who can share all those important values, which are the values that I think our club needs to be built on.
“If he can pass on some of that influence to some of the younger players within our group, young NPL players who might come and train with our group at different times, it’s just invaluable.
“He’s only been here a few weeks but I see all the great moments that you see from the people who just have that extra quality which obviously enabled him to play in the Premier League and be a World Cup winner.
“It doesn’t take you long to see what all those qualities are when you see him at training. So you know, for me, we’ve struck gold with someone like him.”
So with a plan seemingly in place to change the course of the Wanderers ship and a star recruit in Mata ready to weave his magic this coming campaign, the question remains: what should be expected of the club in season 2024-25?
“Look, we’re all winners. I don’t think any A-League coach, and for that matter, any A-League player will say any different, everyone wants to win the competition. For me, that’s a starting point.
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“But as I said, there’s so many other things that go into building a team and a club and a sustainable club for a long period. I think over the 20 years I’ve been coaching, I think hopefully there’s a little bit of a form guide there.
“Coaching is a short tenure. I don’t know if I’ll be here for three months, three years, or 30 years, but I want to build foundations that hopefully keep this club successful for a long time, not just for one match.
“You know, as much as every match is important, every win is important. I want the sport to grow, and I want this team to grow, and I want it to be the best it can be.”
Stajcic’s Western Sydney Wanderers kick off their Isuzu UTE A-League campaign with a mouthwatering Sydney Derby in Round One, as they host Sydney FC at CommBank Stadium on October 19.
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