Melbourne City coach John van ‘t Schip declined an opportunity to confirm the signing of striker Josh Kennedy in the wake of a 5-2 derby loss to Melbourne Victory.
News Corporation this week reported the capture of the Socceroos centre-forward as a done deal, with the veteran expected to arrive in January as a replacement for departed guest player David Villa.Â
City could be forgiven for wanting to shift the spotlight away from their heavy defeat at Etihad Stadium, but for now there remains no official word on Kennedy’s potential arrival from Nagoya Grampus.
“That’s something that the club should bring out if that’s the case,” Van ‘t Schip said when quizzed on the subject.
“I don’t know anything and I’m not going to say anything. I already said yesterday there are a few players we are looking at and Josh is one of them.”
City started brightly and led twice in the first half on Saturday night, but conceded in stoppage time to go in level at the break, before shipping another goal less than a minute after the restart.
The quick-fire blow knocked the men in white and sky blue out of their stride, having previously dominated the early stages of the contest.
When asked if the goal which gave Victory the lead for the first time had demoralised his players, Van ‘t Schip said: “It looked like (it did).”
“But it’s not possible. You have 45 minutes still to go, because it was the first few seconds of the second half. Then you expect that the players to say, ‘ok, it happened’.Â
“It’s a bad start, but you pick up where you left (off) in the first half and you start playing from out of your organisation. That didn’t happen. Instead Victory started playing and we were chasing shadows.Â
“We all, coaches included, have to look at where we can get better.”
