Adelaide United’s latest signing Andwele Slory admitted Reds’ coach Rini Coolen was the main reason the former Dutch international decided to join the club, despite other offers from ‘good clubs’.
Slory revealed he had received two other offers after he had committed to United but said ‘principles’ and his ‘word’ saw him put pen to paper, signing on for a 10-week guest stint for the Reds with the possibility for an extension.
After an unsuccessful stint with Bulgarian club Levski Sofia, the 28-year-old admitted he is looking forward to working with Coolen and praised the former FC Twente boss’s coaching style.
“I came because of Rini and because I gave him my word,” Slory said.
“After I gave him my word two good clubs came, but I am a man of principles. I talked to him and the feeling was good and if you promise somebody something I think you have to keep your word. I thought I want to go there, I want to play for him and I want to play for this team.”
“People told me about him and people know him as a coach. I know he’s a quiet coach and he’s not crazy on the sidelines. For me, it’s good when a coach looks like he has confidence and he’s easy on the bench, I like it very much.”
Coolen admitted he was surprised to learn a player of Slory’s calibre was on the market and immediately swooped for the speedy winger.
“I was surprised to hear he was available so I talked to his manager and asked our club if we could do something,” he said.
“Things were done easily and quick and he kept his word. Still I wasn’t sure for a couple of weeks, you never know until the contract is signed.”
Slory and United are sweating on the arrival of his International Transfer Clearance which will determine if he is available to make his debut in Adelaide against league-leaders Brisbane Roar on January 2.
The ex-Feyenoord star said he is prepared to do whatever he can to help the Reds in the lead-up to the finals and he believes his new team is a quality outfit.
“First of all I think this team has lots of qualities,” he said.
“I think, I hope I can help the team. The coach is the boss so if he wants to put me in the goal I’ll go in the goal, but I want to help wherever and we will see. I cannot look into the future so we have to wait if I can play January 2.”
Coolen said Slory’s arrival was a welcome boost with the Dutch coach conceding United haven’t been the same side in the absence of Matthew Leckie.
The Young Socceroo required surgery on his knee after a crude tackle from Melbourne Victory’s Surat Sukha in October but is hoping to return in January.
“I think what we had at the start of the season with players like Leckie available – we didn’t lose too many games,” he said.
“In our transition moments we had some speed, whether it was on the left or right and we were hard to beat. The moment we lost Leckie everybody knew there were a little bit of problems, we won some games but were not fantastic in our transition.”
Coolen said Slory will give the Reds pace in the front third and hopefully add plenty of goals.
“The way I prefer to play, the way we prefer to play and the moments you can score goals in this league is a lot of transition moments. Andy is quick, is fast, he can score goals and he’s a team player as well,” he said.
